About this Item
'Reprinted from The Hill of Trouble and The Isles of Sunset '. Not clear whether this is a First Edition. This copy was published in 1911 (1911 on title page), the year of the First Edition. There are no additional printings referenced. I believe this copy will be the only one published by John Murray for sale on the Internet. Smith, Elder & Co. also published the title in 1911. The covers are not likely the originals. The top page edge is gilt. The covers are part leather. As you can see in the photographs, there is a marbled pattern on both the front and back covers. This pattern is repeated on the end papers, which are in perfect condition. You can also see how well the covers have held up. The only real flaw of significance is the thin vertical line of scuffed off color on the front cover adjacent to the spine. The book is quite well bound. There are no cracks or spaces, no webbing anywhere to be seen. In fact it's rather square and tight, no cocking, etc. However, the covers do flail out just a little bit because the pages themselves naturally widen out a little bit as they move toward their edges. The page edges, by the way, are spotless. The pages themselves are in very good condition, exceptionally well-bound and unsoiled. There is light age spotting on the half-title page, only three light spots on the title page, and the following page, and then absolutely none at all on the next page which is the first page of the Preface and all of the pages following it, all absolutely free of any spotting, all the way through to the final page, which again has very light spotting. The quality and cleanliness of the pages easily surpasses what would typically be seen in a book of this age. The pages are also all free of any markings or writing/underlining. Nor are there any creases. One final note, as is common there is some variance in the length of the pages at their bottoms. There are also a few where the bottom edge is not entirely even. Take a look at all the photographs. Arthur Christopher Benson (24 April 1862 ? 17 June 1925) was an English essayist, poet, and author and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Like his two brothers Edward Fredric (E.F.) and Robert Hugh (R.H.), A.C. Benson was also noted as an author of ghost stories. The bulk of his published ghost stories in the two volumes The Hill of Trouble (1903) and The Isles of Sunset (1904) were written as moral allegories for his pupils. After Arthur's death, Fred Benson found a collection of unpublished ghost stories by Arthur. He put two of them into a book, Basil Netherby (1927); the title story was renamed "House at Treheale" and the volume was completed by the long "The Uttermost Farthing". The fate of the rest of the stories is unknown. The collection Paul the Minstrel and Other Stories (1911; reprint 1977, collects the entire contents of The Hill of Troubles and The Isles of Sunset. Nine of Arthur's ghost stories are included in David Stuart Davies (ed) The Temple of Death: The Ghost Stories of A.C. & R.H. Benson (Wordsworth, 2007) together with seven by his brother Robert Hugh (R.H.) Benson, while nine of Arthur's and ten of Robert's are included in Ghosts in the House (Ash-Tree, 1996); the contents of the two joint collections are similar but not identical. Seller Inventory # 000749
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