HILDA WADE: A WOMAN WITH TENACITY OF PURPOSE. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [i-ii] iii [iv] v [vi] vii-x [xi-xii] 1-383 [384: blank] [385-389: ads] [290-392: blank], illustrations by Gordon Browne, publisher's pictorial gray green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in white, black and gold. First U.S. edition, first printing. A posthumously published episodic criminous sensation novel which was completed by Allen's friend, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published in THE STRAND MAGAZINE. In his MEMORIES AND ADVENTURES (1924), p. 254, Doyle "says that, in response to Grant Allen's dying wish, he wrote the last two stories in HILDA WADE [i.e. 'The Episode of the Officer Who Understood Perfectly' and 'The Episode of the Dead Man Who Spoke']." - Wolff 106. In MURDER FOR PLEASURE, Howard Haycraft writes: "Vincent Starrett calls ... HILDA WADE ..., completed by Conan Doyle from Allen's notes, "one of the great stories of pursuit and detection and one that is too little known ..." (page 80). Glover and Green, Victorian Detective Fiction 6. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 4. Hubin (1994), p. 11. Owner's signature on the front free endpaper. Hairline crack along inner front hinge but still holding tight, a sound, good copy. (#177637).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.