A propos de cet article
THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL FILE COPY WODEHOUSE, P. G. et. al. 25 Cricket Stories London: George Newnes Limited, [1909] 8vo., original publisher's card wraps featuring an image in white and green of a cricketer swinging a bat; 'Fry's Cocoa' advertisement to lower; sometime sympathetically rebacked in dark green cloth; pp. [v], 6-208, with additional advertisements to inside covers and p. [i-ii]; the publisher's original file copy, stamped 'Literary Bureau, George Newnes Ltd., Southampton St., Strand, London, W. C. ' in purple to the front cover, with 'file' written underneath in black ink; a little rubbed and scuffed along spine with slight loss to the card at hinges; glue and tape repair evident to the gutters of the first two pages; otherwise a lovely example, the text block a little toned, as is common, with publisher's marginal annotations in the same hand throughout, perhaps containing references to where they might be later published. Now housed in a custom-made and felt-lined clamshell case, quarter green morocco over green cloth boards; spine with five raised bands and lettered direct in gilt. A lovely collection of humorous cricketing tales, of which P. G. Wodehouse contributes four stories, three appearing here for the very first time in book form : 'Tom, Dick and Harry' (p. 7); 'The Wire-Pullers' (p. 40), 'The Lost Bowlers' (p.78); and 'How Pillingshot Scored' (p.118). The tales represent relatively early works in the Wodehouse canon, written in the same year as 'Mike' (A & C Black). Further contributors include the rather wonderfully named W. M. Elkington, Mottram Gilbert, G. G. Farquhar, Astion Belvangan, H. St John Seamer, W. Frank Bartlett, A. W. Pendyn, Arthur D. Wood, S. B. Reid, Harold Scholfield, H. Harvey, Eden Wharton, Oliver Strange, Alfred B. Cooper, H. Hervey, Sybil Read, Sam Berry, Onslow Deane, Harold Macfarlane and D. L. A. Jephson. Each of the four stories are typically Wodehouse-ian. 'Tom, Dick and Harry' follows two boys as they argue over who will win the affections of Dolly Burn - and vow to settle the matter with a good old-fashioned game of English cricket. 'The Wire-Pullers' is written from the perspective of a seventeen year-old girl who, coming of age, attempts to persuade her father to spend the winter with her in London - to which he readily agrees (as long as he makes fifty in the upcoming cricket match). 'The Lost Bowlers' discusses a rather competitive match between the Weary Willies and Marvis Bay; and 'How Pillingshot Scored' covers the titular character's attempts at getting out of a last-minute midterm exam - by participating in an essential cricket match. A scarce work indeed for collectors of P. G. Wodehouse or cricketing-related fiction more generally. "It is the boast of the Weary Willies that against Marvis Bay they never fail to get their own back".
N° de réf. du vendeur 2
Contacter le vendeur
Signaler cet article
