"BREATH OF THE JUNGLE" Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1915. Octavo, pp. [1-2: blank] [i-iv] v [vi] [1-2] 3-356, original dark blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in cream. First edition. Dwyer, an Australian writer of fantastic adventures novels much in the vein of H. Rider Haggard, traveled widely throughout the Far and Near East and Africa. His experiences were the basis for his fiction, much of it published in the pulps, Blue Book, Short Stories and others. BREATH OF THE JUNGLE collects twelve Oriental adventure stories from the early pulps; cliched, racist and rattling good yarns, too. The collection includes several atmospheric horrors set in the Malay jungle, as well as "The Phantom Ship of Dirk van Tromp" (reprinted Avon Fantasy Reader #18 [1952]), an excellent Flying Dutchman variant. "Set in the jungles of the East, these short stories remind one somewhat of Conrad in that many of them deal with the theme of the deterioration of a white man who has come under the influence of the jungle. Perhaps the most notable story is 'The Soul Trapper,' in which a beautiful native woman sings to a man in order to save his sanity after he has gone mad in the jungle." - Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 270. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), p. 305. Bleiler (1978), p. 66. Reginald 04642. Cloth rubbed at edges, mainly spine ends and corner tips, several damp spots on front cover, front free endpaper missing, a sound, good copy. (#172030).
Price: $100.00
"Published April, 1915" on copyright page.