King Solomon's Mines The first U.S. issue from British first edition sheets, far scarcer than its British-issue counterpart

H. Rider Haggard

Edité par Cassell and Company Limited, London and New York, 1885

This is a complete and unrestored U.S. issue of the British first edition of the best-known work of prolific English novelist H. Rider Haggard. 500 of the 2,000 sets of sheets of the British first printing were sent to the New York office of the publisher, Cassell. These 500 were bound in the U.S. without the advertisements following the text and with floral endpapers. While the British first printing binding was maroon, some of the earliest bindings of the U.S. issue were blue, green or purple. Here is the blue cloth binding in very good condition, the illustrated binding tight with a slight forward lean, the boards bright with minor shelf wear primarily confined to extremities, the spine modestly toned and scuffed. The contents are notably clean, with no spotting and only mild age-toning. The first printing typographical errors at pages 10, 122, and 307 are uncorrected. The yellow floral endpapers are intact, as is the foldout map opposite the title page, which shows only a neat, short tear to one of the folds. We have left unerased the sole previous owner name, in four lines in pencil on the blank recto preceding the half title, that of a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps. A cryptic "M.2.H" is inked at the upper right of the half title."One of the first African adventure stories," King Solomon s Mines concerns the efforts of a group of Englishmen to find the legendary diamond mines of King Solomon and features the explorer Allan Quartermain. Haggard s Quartermain appeared in numerous subsequent works by Haggard and, in addition to his literary life, has seen numerous film and television adaptations, being played by actors including Richard Chamberlain, Sean Connery, and Patrick Swayze. Notionally akin to Kipling, Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was an Englishman whose writing was fundamentally hued by his youthful, expatriate British colonial experience. In 1875, at the age of 19, at the instigation of his father, Haggard left England to take on managing the household of Sir Henry Bulwer, newly appointed lieutenant-governor of Natal. "Africa stunned, excited, and ripened the youth. Thrust into the maelstrom in which Zulu, Boer, and Briton struggled for superiority,Rider Haggardworked hard, hunted wild game, travelled through jungle and over veld." But it would take some years and fortuitous accident to bring him to writing. Haggard was set on a law career when he "stumbled upon fiction as a means of expressing himself. While he and his wife were in church one Sunday morning, they noticed sitting near them a 'singularly beautiful and pure-faced young lady' (Days of my Life, 1.209) who, they decided, deserved to be the heroine of a novel. Husband and wife each began to write a story about her. AlthoughMrs Haggardsoon gave up,Riderwrote on and completed his first three-decker,Dawn." It was published in 1884. Just as a random prompt had let to his first novel, a second led him to him becoming a full-time writer. "In 1885 one ofRider'sbrothers asked his opinion of an adventure story that had just been published,Treasure Island, andRiderreplied recklessly that, though it was certainly a good tale, he himself could write a boy's book just as good. His brother challenged him, and for the next six weeksRiderspent his evenings at his pedestal desk in his Kensington house, trying to win the wager with a tale of African adventure.Cassells, who had publishedTreasure Island, agreed to publishKing Solomon's Mines(1885), andHaggardwas offered a choice of terms:£100outright for the copyright or a 10 per cent royalty. He was ready to accept the£100, when, in the chief editor's momentary absence from the room, a clerk advised him to take the royalty.Haggardreversed himself and made the right choice.King Solomon's Minesmet with instant success and transformed his life." Haggard was able to give up the law and write full time, "producing at least a book a year until his death."Reference: ODNB. N° de réf. du vendeur 008497

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : King Solomon's Mines The first U.S. issue ...
Éditeur : Cassell and Company Limited, London and New York
Date d'édition : 1885
Reliure : Hardcover
Edition : First U.S. issue.