THE GOLDEN JOURNEY OF MR. PARADYNE. London: John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd., 1924. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-53 [54-55: ads] [56: blank], eight inserted plates with color illustrations by Marcia Lane Foster, smaller black and white illustrations in the text, original pictorial light orange boards with black cloth spine panel, front panel stamped in dark orange and black, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge stained orange, pictorial endpapers. First edition. A short fantastic allegory about the gift of life. Overworked, successful, but spiritually dead English barrister wins a bet with an itinerant musician and awakes in France as a vital, younger man with a caravan and peddler's license. After several days spent analyzing his past life, "the dawn found him, with the shinning eyes of one awakened to Life's promise, jogging southward on an irrevocable way, never, in this life, to retrace his steps." Typical of Locke's gay romanticism; his favorite fictional type was the vagabond who is the despair of dull and pompous people. This story was collected in STORIES NEAR AND FAR (1927). Bleiler (1978), p. 125. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). A bit of scattered foxing to first gathering (preliminary leaves), a near fine copy in very good pictorial dust jacket with several short closed tears at edges and some dust soiling. (#106767).
Price: $85.00
"First published in 1924" on copyright page.