Fables in Slang

Small 4to. Red paper over boards with grey spine lettering, slipcase with pictorial sides. 171pp. Frontispiece, decorations, decorative endpapers. Fine/very good. Minor archival slipcase repairs. Tight and handsome copy of this Christmas keepsake published by the Virginia paper firm in an unspecified limited edition. Hoosier humorist, columnist and playwright Ade (1866-1944) first published this in 1899. This copy bears fascinating ephemeral eddition: Tipped in facing half-title page is an envelope bearing the printed name of "Hazeldon Farm," Ade's famed country manor in Brook, Indiana, postally cancelled on 21 September 1929. Inside this is a Typed Letter Signed (not by Ade but by secretary Joseph W. Reeve): 1p, 8½" X 11", Brook, Indiana, 21 September 1929. Addressed to a Pierre Bosman in Johannesburg, South Africa. Near fine. Original folds. On imprinted letterhead, Reeve writes: "Mr Ade is at present confined in the St. Luke's hospital in Chicago with a broken arm, as the result of a fall at his country home near Brook, Indiana this week. Aside from a broken arm he received a few minor injuries but nothing of a serious nature and the eminent doctors assure him he will be out in a short time. when he is able to go over his mail your message will be brought to his attention." Ade had been rushing to answer a telephone when he fell down a flight of stairs, causing his month-long hospital stay and release in October.…