An Old Captivity

New York: William Morrow and Co.. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1940. First American Edition. Hardcover. [very light shelfwear, a touch of soiling to top edge of text block; the jacket is a little faded at the spine, with modest wear at edges and extremities, some soiling to the rear panel, and internal white-paper-tape reinforcement at the spine ends and the bottom front flap-fold]. (endpaper maps) An adventure story about an out-of-work aviator who's hired by an archaeologist to fly him over Greenland for an aerial survey of some old Viking ruins, only to discover that part of the deal includes an extra passenger: the archaeologist's daughter. (truncated) "An expedition by air from England to Greenland was going to be difficult enough for one man to handle even without the complications of an extra passenger, a girl -- and an unfriendly girl at that." At one point in the plot, the pilot falls into a sleeping-pill-induced coma, during which he has a dream that he and the daughter were once slaves aboard a Viking ship on its voyage of discovery to Greenland. (It doesn't seem as though the uncredited jacket artist knew much, if anything, about Greenland; he must have just figured "guess I'll make it green, that should be fine.") I have also seen at least one example of this book in a variant (non-pictorial) dust jacket, but am unsure of the precedence. Also published in England in the same year, by Heinemann. NOTE that this is the true U.S. first (Morrow), not be confused with the more common book club (Literary Guild) edition. . (Inventory #: 29748)