Conway Hugh Pseud (3 results)

(iv), 194pp, 4pp ads. Orig. brown cloth, blocked in black, spine lettered in gilt; sl. rubbed. Not in Glover & Greene. Not in Hubin. Wolff records the 'first edition' published in late 1883 as part of Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual. The first 'book edition' was published in 1884. Copac records only Aberdeen and University of London having this edition. Sutherland comments: 'This sensational story of murder, amnesia, Siberian exile, political assassination and detection made a tremendous hit. It was translated all over Europe, a dramatized version ran for a year, and the novel sold over 350,000 copies in four years.' Hugh Conway was the pen name of Frederick John Fargus, 1847-1885, a novelist who also worked at times as an accountant and an auctioneer; he died of typhoid fever in Monte Carlo.…

Half title. Orig. red cloth, blocked & lettered in black; spine sl. darkened. A nice copy. Ownership inscription of Emily Wilkinson 1886 on half title. Not in Wolff. First published in three volumes in the same year; this first one-volume edition not in BL or recorded on Copac.

FIRST EDITION. 3 vols. Half titles, 32pp cata. vol. III (March 1886). Original salmon-pink smooth cloth, borders & rules on front boards & spines, back boards in blind, spines lettered in gilt. A nice bright copy. See Glover & Greene 86 for a new edition of the same year. Sadleir 613; Wolff 1426. Conway's last novel published after his untimely death age just 38; Glover and Greene record the detective character as barrister Philip Norris. Chapter titles include: 'Recognition and Denial', 'Distraction with a Vengeance', 'Loafing on Scientific Principals', 'A Terrible Old Man', 'Through Good and Evil Report', 'The Hand of Fate', 'On the Right Track', 'The Truth at Last', 'A Question of Precedence', 'After Long Years', and many more. …