L. W. Currey, Inc.

Robinson, H[arry] Perry. THE GIFT OF FERNSEED. London: For Private Circulation, December 1902. Octavo, pp. [1-2: blank] [3-9] 10-77 [78-80: blank], half title page printed in red, title page printed in red and black, publisher's gray boards with Japan paper shelf back, title printed in red on front panel, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First separate edition. Limited to 100 numbered copies signed by Robinson. Horror novella concerning the terrifying experience of an American physician vacationing in the Pacific Northwest who insults an Indian medicine man. The Indian challenges the doctor to take some "medicine" so he "may know the Indian has learned something." The physician takes the drug and is made insubstantial and invisible; only animals can sense his presence. Christian allegory of pain, spiritual suffering, death, enlightenment, and rebirth. Collected earlier in TALES BY THREE BROTHERS (1902). Sir Harry Perry Robinson KBE (1859-1930) was a British writer, journalist and naturalist born in India and educated at Oxford. He worked as a war correspondent for THE TIMES during World War I and was knighted in 1920 for his efforts. Robinson spent 17 years in the United States (1883–1900), where he ran a railroad journal and helped manage Republican presidential campaigns, notably for William McKinley. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1890b. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 184-185. Reginald 12293. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978). Boards a bit rubbed and dust soiled, spine panel a bit darkened, mild foxing to endpapers, a very good, internally fine copy. A very scarce book. This copy, number 7, was presented to H. W. Hawks on 1 February 1908. It is accompanied by two autograph letters signed by Robinson, dated 1 February 1908 and 6 February 1908 respectively, the first conveying the book as well as a photograph of Robinson and W. C. Tiffany taken in 1897 in North Dakota while on a hunting trip.

Price: $500.00