Emin, the Governor of Equatoria

London: The Fleuron Ltd, 1928. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Spine slightly faded, a very good copy. 8vo. Original cloth-backed decorated boards. First edition, limited to 300 numbered copies (of which this is no. 21), and the dedication copy, inscribed by Symons on the front free endpaper (oddly, his inscription virtually repeats the printed dedication): "for Harold Fisher from whose eloquent lips, one sultry midnight seven years ago, I first heard the story of Emin: from AJ." Symons' first book is a study of the 19th-century German who, under the assumed name of Emin Pasha, lived for fifteen years as a Turk in Equatorial Africa. The dedicatee, Captain Harold Fisher, was Symons' oldest and closest friend (see his brother Julian's excellent biography, 'A. J. A. Symons: His Life and Speculations,' Oxford, 1986). 'Emin' is the first book printed (by Oliver Simon at the Curwen Press) in Lutetia type designed by Van Krimpen. With the prospectus laid in.

Alphonse James Albert Symons (1900-1941) was a bibliographer, biographer (particularly of Corvo), book collector and general bon vivant. He was the founder of the First Editions Club, a co-founder with Andre Simon of the Wine & Food Society, and, with Desmond Flower, of the 'Book Collector's Quarterly' (a forerunner to the 'Book Collector'). (BA).