Van Bibber and Others
signed first edition Hardcover
1892 · New York
by DAVIS, Richard Harding
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. Hardcover. Very Good. First edition, first issue having no advertisements. Decorative green cloth stamped in red and gilt. Illustrated by C.D. Gibson. A black and white photograph of Davis glued onto page 2 (dated 1901), three inch or so piece cut out of front fly, spine lightly yellowed and cocked, still a very good copy lacking the scarce dustwrapper. Signed (Richard Harding Davis) paper and oval portrait of author mounted on front pastedown. The author's third regularly published book, a collection of interrelated stories featuring Van Bibber, a young man-about-town seemingly based on Davis himself. Davis, a standout journalist who covered every major conflict of his generation, was a dashing figure, a darling of society and the model used by Charles Dana Gibson for the handsome young men who pursued the "Gibson Girl." At least two of the stories in this collection were the basis for silent films: *Her First Appearance*, filmed in 1910, and *Andy M'Gee's Chorus Girl,* filmed in 1923 by William A. Wellman as *Cupid's Fireman.*. (Inventory #: 408680)