Barrie: The Story Of J.M.B.

Denis Mackail

Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1941

About this Item

First Edition (Scribner 'A' and seal on the copyright page). The inside covers and first and last endpapers are a swirling marbled combination of browns. The second of three front endpapers is or was blank. It now has a red stamped address and the penned signature with a little drawing of the previous owner, the mystery writer, J. Bigelow Clark. He dated it 1943. The address (see photo) is Long Mountain, Gaylordsville, Connecticut. You can see the covers in the photos. The previous owner went to the trouble of putting the book into this really nice half-binding, with leather spine and corners and a gilt top page edge. The leather is in generally nice condition. There is a small spot of rub-through at each of the four corners, also a small spot of it on the rear bottom edge that comes up a tiny bit onto the rear cover (third photo). There's also some lighter rubbing on the two bottom edges and at the front side of the spine. There is a dark spot off the rear top edge adjacent to the spine. So, not perfect but as you should be able to see from the photos, very nice-looking. The cloth part of the covers has a soft texture and is very clean, as is the leather. The spine looks terrific, just a little bit of wear at the bottom edge. The gilt top page edge is in very good shape and very bright. The middle page edge and bottom page edge look very good as well. The book is square. The spine is straight. The binding of the pages is very solid. They are nicely tight from cover to cover, free of any issue. The front cover is very nicely bound. The rear cover needs to be pasted back into position as it is not pasted at the spine, but is otherwise very solidly bound. The issue is not structural. It just needs to be pasted back in place. I could do this but I'd rather let you, unless you ask me to. A little bit of the paper at the juncture there has lifted up and a few little bits of it s paper have come off (although they are still there), but when the cover is glued back into place back in place, the juncture should look pretty decent, not perfect. I'm going to provide a photograph. In very tiny printed letters, just off the top edge of the blank verso of the first front end paper, is the name 'Brentanos', a likely indication that they created the binding. The pages are in very nice condition. I've scrolled through them a number of times. I saw a total of only a handful of very light amber-colored spots over the first few pages and then none at all after that. I'm not finding any soiling. I'm not finding any conspicuous wear. Over the early pages there is a teeny tiny tip of the top corner semi-crease, not a corner that had been turned down or needed to be flattened out. Other than that I didn't find any creasing. The corners look very good. The stamped address is the only marking in the book. Mr. Clark's signature is the only writing to be found anywhere in the book. There are no attachments of any kind. 'Denis George Mackail was an English novelist and short-story writer. His first work was as a stage-set designer, notably for J. M. Barrie's The Adored One and George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. After a nervous breakdown, Mackail as therapy set about writing the official biography of J. M. Barrie, which appeared in 1941. He went on to produce seven more novels and some books of reminiscences, but after the early death of his wife in 1949, he published nothing further and lived quietly in London until his own death in 1971.'. Seller Inventory # 004058

Bibliographic Details

Title: Barrie: The Story Of J.M.B.

Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

Publication Date: 1941

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition