THE PICAROONS. New York: McClure, Phillips & Company, 1904. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-284, title page printed in orange and black, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. A series of linked stories (a "San Francisco Night's Entertainment," the authors call them) told round the table at Coffee John's, a low class eatery in San Francisco. Largely tales of roguery and crime, the author explaining in a prefatory note that a picaroon is the typical hero of a picaresque tale, which, originating in early seventeenth-century Spain, relates the adventures of a rogue. In one of the stories, a charlatan who styled himself "Professor Vango" when he was conducting fake seances, tells how he became haunted by the genuine ghost of one of his clients. Bleiler (1948), p. 65. Reginald 02215. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 15. Hubin (1994), p. 117. Baird and Greenwood 354. Smith, American Fiction, 1901-1925 B-1207. Cloth rubbed at spine ends and corner tips, small old glue stain at upper edge of front paste-down where a label was removed, a very good copy. (#159735).
Price: $45.00
"Published, April, 1904" on copyright page.