Author: DICKENS, Charles
Title: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
Description: Oxford, The Limited Editions Club, 1933. Hardcover. Introduction by G.K. Chesterton. Illustrations by John Austen. Complete 2-volume set. 4to. Brown cloth with gilt spine lettering and decoration. xxvi, 374pp; x, pp. 375-759. Color frontispieces, full-page color plates, decorative endpapers. Very good. Quite minor binding wear, with foot of spines faded, while internally tight and fine; lacks dust jackets and slipcase. Tight and nice set of the ninth title in the LEC's fourth series -- Dickens' debut novel, first published in book form in 1837. Colophon at rear notes limitation of 1500 numbered copies (this #1132) signed by illustrator Austen. This copy bears a fine publisher's letter: Tipped to inner flyleaf is a meaty Typed Letter Signed from LEC founder George Macy (1900-56): 1p, 8½" X 11", New York, NY, 6 June 1932. Addressed to Mortimer H. Hess. Near fine. Paper clip imprint at left margin; single original horizontal light fold. On Limited Editions Club letterhead, Macy discusses the firm's fourth series. In part: "Here at the office, we are in a dither of excitement over it. For it is obvious that the continued success of this Club has been due to the plan which enabled us to furnish our members with worth-while fine books at low prices. And now, in this fourth series, that plan enables us to furnish our members with five fine books containing more than one thousand pages each, and two fine books printed completely by hand -- at the same prices!" He goes on in this breathless manner: "The titles seem to us even more desirable than ever; a fine Huck Finn, a Dante, a Pickwick, a Hamlet, a Don Quixote.." He goes on in this same sales-pitchy vein before signing off in his trademark brown ink. NEWMAN 45. .

Keywords: British Literature


See more books from our catalog: Books