Description

“THE FIRST AND GREATEST OF ENGLISH DETECTIVE NOVELS” (T.S. ELIOT): EXTRAORDINARILY RARE PRESENTATION  TRIPLE-DECKER FIRST EDITION OF WILKIE COLLINS’ MOONSTONE IN ORIGINAL CLOTH, INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION TO ONE OF COLLINS’ CLOSEST AND MOST DEVOTED FRIENDS, F. CARR BEARD, THIS ONE OF ONLY TWO COPIES THAT WE KNOW OF THAT COLLINS  EVER INSCRIBED (THE OTHER BEING TO CHARLES DICKENS)

COLLINS, Wilkie. The Moonstone. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1868. Three volumes. Octavo, original gilt-stamped purple cloth, uncut. Housed in custom cloth chemise and full morocco slipcase.

Exceptionally rare first edition in book form, first issue, of Collins’ greatest novel and a milestone of the detective genre (extraordinarily rare in the first edition in the original cloth), this one of only two copies that we know of that Collins ever inscribed (the other being to Collins’ mentor Charles Dickens), inscribed on the dedication page in the year of publication to Collins’ doctor and one of his closest friends: “To F. Carr Beard Esquire from Wilkie Collins. July 13th 1868.”

“Collins is considered by some to have been the first English author of bona fide detective and mystery novels” (Benet, 201) and set the template for that genre, which has lasted for at least a century. “The Moonstone is story-telling as fine as the 19th century can show? Collins could fashion ingenious puppets to his will, entangling them in the meshes of his intricate and faultlessly constructed plots” (Sadleir, 131). The appearance of Sergeant Cuff heralded a new era in detection—substantial progress from the type of mystery Collins had presented earlier in The Woman in White. In fact, The Moonstone is the most significant book in the genre between Poe’s Tales and Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet. It is unquestionably a highpoint in Victorian literature of any type. This story first appeared in the periodical All the Year Round, immediate successor to Household Words, both owned and edited by Collins’ close friend and sometime collaborator, Charles Dickens. First issue, with “treachesrouly” on p. 129, line 24 of Volume II, and p. 10 and 11 transposed in Volume I. With half titles. Sadleir, 142. CBEL III:480. The recipient of this copy was the author’s extremely close friend and doctor, F. Carr Beard. Collins, Beard, and Beard’s brother shared a lengthy friendship with each other, as well as with Charles Dickens. They even shared a carriage to Dickens’ funeral. Wilkie Collins and Francis Carr Beard, however, had a unique closeness. Beard was not only Collins’ doctor, but also his advisor on the medical and psychiatric facts Collins used in his novels. This professional relationship only augmented their personal friendship. Beard was even the dedicatee of No Name. In fact, Collins’ final piece of writing was a note to Beard requesting his attendance at what was to be Collins’ deathbed. After Collins’ death, Beard was a member of a committee to erect a memorial to Collins—a memorial that eventually took the form of a library. The friendship between Collins and Beard truly lasted a lifetime and even beyond, making this inscribed copy without rival. Bookplates of socialite and distinguished book collector Katharine de Berkeley Parsons, and at one time in the collection of H. Bradley Martin.

Interiors generally fine, all volumes recased, with a some expert cloth repair to spines and toning to extremities. An exceptionally rare and desirable inscribed copy, one of only two known to exist and with unparalleled provenance.

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