THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSE-BOAT

New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1897. First printing. Very good.. First edition of this comic pastiche, in which a host of ghosts and literary constructs - Shakespeare, Boswell, Socrates, and Sherlock Holmes among them - seek after their house-boat, formerly lost on the River Styx. 6.5'' x 4.25''. Original tan pictorial cloth, with green, red, and black image of Captain Kidd stamped on front board. Gilt-lettered spine. BAL state B. 204 pages, followed by [4] pages of publisher's advertisements. Previously owned by journalist and illustrator Bristow Adams, with his name in pen on title page. Though no provenance markings, this copy subsequently from the library of noted Sherlockian, BSI member since 1973, and retired US magistrate judge Andrew Peck. Slightly cocked, some soil and edgewear to cloth, spine toned.