Cassell's Magazine June to November 1902

Cassell's Magazine Illustrated / bound volume June to November 1902 / INCLUDING CLIFFORD ASHDOWN'S 'THE ADVENTURES OF RODNEY PRINGLE'

Hardcover. Condición: Good. No Jacket. Illustrated by Fred Pegram Ilustrador. 1st Edition. In original red boards with gilt titling, call this hardcover bound volume of the Edwardian monthly magazine, "good." (Color frontispiece protected by a tissue guard, and that tissue guard alone shows some foxing.) From 1905 through his death in 1943 (and beyond -- posthumous story collections popped up well into the 1970s) former colonial surgeon R(ichard) Austin Freeman was celebrated as one of Britain's leading purveyors of detective fiction, the bulk of his tales featuring medico-forensic sleuth Dr. Thorndyke and his man, Polson. However, in collaboration with his friend John James Pitcairn (medical officer of Holloway Prison), Freeman actually wrote an earlier series of six tales featuring a character whose talents, powers of observation, and mastery of disguise easily matched those of Sherlock Holmes, but who turned those skills to the service of . . . crime. The original six adventures of gentleman burglar, con man and stock manipulator Rodney Pringle were published in Cassell's Magazine from June through November, 1902, under the pseudonym "Clifford Ashdown." The tales were then gathered into a small hardcover book published by Ward Lock, dated 1902, and titled (straightforwardly enough) "The Adventures of Rodney Pringle." Which promptly disappeared. Don't ask us. They're just gone. Six copies of that hardcover first edition are believed to remain in existence. Authorities as notable as Ellery Queen have declared "The Adventures of Rodney Pringle" the "rarest book in detective fiction" (though there are other nominees for that honor, of course.) R.B. Russell estimated the value of a nice copy of that stand-alone hardcover at about $2,200 in 2010 . . . though those stalking a copy today might be well advised to have $4,000 at the ready. But is that coveted small book REALLY the first hardcover edition? For not only do all six of the tales appear in this bound volume of Cassell's Magazine dated "1902.2" -- June through November of that year -- but they're accompanied here by the fine original illustrations by Fred Pegram, at the original "large octavo" magazine size -- some of them striking full-page plates with image areas of 5X8 inches! Also featuring a series of non-fiction essays by R. Austin Freeman on Britain's lighthouses, as well as profiles of Mark Twain and Thomas A. Edison (by other hands), this 668-pg. bound volume is rarely encountered. Here reduced from $725. Nº de ref. del artículo: 012553

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