c.1927 Wilkie Collins : The Moonstone : Original Dust Jacket : Astor Library Ed

THE MOONSTONE

By Wilkie Collins

New York: Lincoln MacVeagh / The Dial Press, [undated but ca.1927]. First Astor Library Edition. Octavo (19cm); black cloth, titled and ruled in red on spine and front cover; original dust jacket; [6],7-500pp.

Description: An uncommon edition of Collins's 1868 novel, first serialized in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round, followed immediately by a three-decked published by Tinsley Brothers. Centered around a large yellow diamond, stolen by an Englishman during the Anglo-Mysore War from an Indian religious idol and brought to London. The Moonstone was the first title to appear in The Astor Library series, an attempt at a general literature series made to compete with the Modern Library and Everyman's Library. Dodd, Mead marketed the first 12 titles in the series through The Dial Press in 1927, offered at $1 per volume. An attractive edition, seldom found in commerce, with a scant 6 holdings found in OCLC. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone title. Hubin, p.88; Pronzini & Muller, pp.158-59.

CONDITION
Small closed tear to right margin of half-title page, two tiny nicks to cloth along the rear joint, else a fresh, very near fine copy. In the original pictorial dust jacket designed by Mabel Victoria Leith, priced $1 at lower spine; lightly edgeworn, some dust-soil to the spine and rear panel. Overall a very good copy. Scarce in jacket.

(GC4)