MR. JACK HAMLIN'S MEDIATION AND OTHER STORIES.
Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899. First edition. Small octavo. [4],289,[3] pp. T.e.g. Marbled endpapers with bookplate of the poet and children's author Eugene Field affixed to the front pastedown four full years after his death. Half crimson pebbled morocco over pink and cream mottled paper boards. Spine and corners bordered with a single gilt fillet. Spine with five raised bands, forming six compartments; gilt-lettered directly in the second and fourth compartments, the remaining compartments decorated with a central gilt leaf tool. Original publisher's decorated cloth front cover and spine bound in at rear. A tight, clean copy with bright spine gilt; minor rubbing to spine ends and joints, corner tips slightly worn. A very good or better copy.
First edition. A collection of eight California-centered stories featuring Harte's famous gambler character, Jack Hamlin. Another character appears at the conclusion of the text, Eugene Field II, who adds his “statement of authentication” on the rear free endpaper: “This set consisting entirely of first editions came from the library of my father, Eugene Field, and was completed after his death. Eugene Field II / Sept 1 - 1924." The bookplate is authentic as the forgers, Field Jr. and his accomplice the Chicago bookseller Harry Dayton Sickles, had a stash of the bookplates that Senior put in his books (they later forged new ones when these ran out). Item #854
BAL 7392; Wright (III) 2545.
Price: $225.00