GARDINER, Gordon. The Pattern of Chance. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. 1930. 8vo. First American edition. Publisher’s brown cloth lettered in black to the spine and with black ruling to boards, in the exquisite dust jacket designed by a young Edward Ardizzone, prior to his adopting the style of which he his remembered. A very good or better copy. The cloth clean and bright, very gently bumped at extremities. The binding tight and square, the contents mostly fine, with ink previous owner name to front endpaper, else clean. The dust jacket unclipped ($2.50) with several small chips to the spine head and tail and to corners, some mild creases and bumps, with some tape repairs to verso. A handsome copy overall.
An intriguing Hubin-listed mystery which begins with the release from prison ‘a young Englishman of good family but bad upbringing’, who vows to start life anew by boarding a ship for South Africa. There, the shadows of his past creep up behind him. Gardiner served as Chief Intelligence Officer for Scotland in the First World War, and, according to the rear flap, provided America with the first lecture on the works of his friend, Joseph Conrad, at Harvard. The striking dust jacket is by a young Edward Ardizzone, so signed ‘EJIA’, produced on the cusp of his adopting his more usual style that he became synonymous with. A bibliographical mystery itself, the design adorns only the American edition—the British first by Sampson and Low one year prior adopts a plain wrapper. Gardiner’s handful of other mysteries were published by Houghton Mifflin, but the link from there to Ardizzone remains curiously unknown. Scarce.
GARDINER, Gordon. The Pattern of Chance. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. 1930. 8vo. First American edition. Publisher’s brown cloth lettered in black to the spine and with black ruling to boards, in the exquisite dust jacket designed by a young Edward Ardizzone, prior to his adopting the style of which he his remembered. A very good or better copy. The cloth clean and bright, very gently bumped at extremities. The binding tight and square, the contents mostly fine, with ink previous owner name to front endpaper, else clean. The dust jacket unclipped ($2.50) with several small chips to the spine head and tail and to corners, some mild creases and bumps, with some tape repairs to verso. A handsome copy overall.
An intriguing Hubin-listed mystery which begins with the release from prison ‘a young Englishman of good family but bad upbringing’, who vows to start life anew by boarding a ship for South Africa. There, the shadows of his past creep up behind him. Gardiner served as Chief Intelligence Officer for Scotland in the First World War, and, according to the rear flap, provided America with the first lecture on the works of his friend, Joseph Conrad, at Harvard. The striking dust jacket is by a young Edward Ardizzone, so signed ‘EJIA’, produced on the cusp of his adopting his more usual style that he became synonymous with. A bibliographical mystery itself, the design adorns only the American edition—the British first by Sampson and Low one year prior adopts a plain wrapper. Gardiner’s handful of other mysteries were published by Houghton Mifflin, but the link from there to Ardizzone remains curiously unknown. Scarce.
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