Gun Cotton - Adventurer - Inscribed

First Edition. -- Condition: Near fine, little rubbing to boards, small loss to head of spine, internally fine, in very good dust jacket, toning to spine, wear to corners and spine ends, light soiling to rear panel, slightly heavier to rear fold. -- Details: Inscribed 'With best wishes to my old friend Arthur Richardson from Rupert Grayson'. This time Gun Cotton sails for New York. First edition of the third 'Gun Cotton' book, in a bright example of the scarce and delicate dust jacket. Sir Rupert Stanley Harrington Grayson, 4th Bt. (1897-1991) - 'Born into the wealthy Liverpool shipbuilding family of Sir Henry Grayson, Rupert, leaving Harrow, joined the Irish Guards and was wounded in WWI by the shell that killed Rudyard Kipling's son, John. He married twice, but only for a brief period of time. He roamed the world as a seafarer, author, talent scout, king's messenger, eccentric, romantic, epicure, wit, and friend of the colourful, gifted and famous. He wrote 16 thriller novels, was made a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre by the Pope, and dodged death from a drugged-up army officer on the Moscow-Leningrad Express. He jumped ship as a seaman in New York, suspected of murdering the captain, travelled the world carrying secret documents to British embassies, and encountered the traitor-spy Kim Philby. He devised a cocktail with Scott Fitzgerald in Paris one boozy night, and discovered verses by Noel Coward in a remote guest house in Peru.' - Moving On: From the Memoirs of the Late Sir Rupert Grayson. -- Octavo (book size 18.9 x 13.4 cm), pp. 285 [3]. Publisher's smooth black cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt. --.…