WHY THE MILKMAN SHUDDERS WHEN HE PERCEIVES THE DAWN.
Fostoria, Ohio: Privately Printed, 1925. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo, publisher's light blue boards with printe paper title label on upper cover, light blue endpapers. Printed in light blue and black, decorative title page. [6] pp. "Put into type and printed by Edwin Uhler Sowers, 2d, in December 1925 and sent to you with his heartiest Christmas wishes. 100 copies printed". Small, 1/2-inch closed tear to edge of final blank leaf, one small browned strip to front board at bottom edge; mild browning to endpapers and board, touch of rubbing to spine panel. A nice, clean copy, Very Good or better. Very Good. Item #312074
¶ Likely, Lord Dunsany's rarest book. Issued by a Small Printer in the midwest as a Christmas token; this is the first separate edition of a short fantasy tale which first appeared in THE LAST BOOK OF WONDER (1916). In over 40 years of collecting and dealing in books by Dunsany this is the only copy we have ever encountered; we know of one collector who had a copy but gave it to the library at Dunsany Castle, as it was lacking from their holdings. One might think that the Sheffield School of Art edition of THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE, SAVE FOR SACNOTH issued in 1910 in an edition of 30 copies would be the greatest desiderata for Dunsany afficionados, but over the years I have held, owned or seen for sale at least 5 different copies of that book. The first separate edition of CARCASSONNE (Boston, John W. Luce & Company, circa 1947) is very scarce, but we have handled a copy (ok, one copy) of that book as well. But we have never seen a copy of this book; there was no copy in the almost absurdly extensive collection formed by our old friend, bookseller Frank Spellman, whose collection of almost 500 Dunsany items was bought by us at auction in 2016. No matter what the final decision on 'Dunsany's rarest book' may be, 'WHY THE MILKMAN SHUDDERS' is a great rarity, and this is an exceptional copy.
Price: $3,500.00