Stray Lamb

New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929. Full Description:

SMITH, Thorne. Stray Lamb. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929.

First Edition. Octavo (7 3/8 x 5 inches; 187 x 127 mm). vi, [2], 303, [1, blank] pp.

Publisher's original full black cloth. Front board and spine lettered in pink. Some very mild rubbing to bottom of board. In publisher's original dust jacket. Some minor rubbing to front panel of jacket and along bottom of the spine. A small piece clipped front bottom of front flap. Overall an about fine copy in a very good jacket.

"Born in Annapolis, Maryland, James Thorne Smith had a brief (truncated) but prolific career as a best-selling comic novelist. He began his working years as an advertising copy-writer, but soon turned to fiction writing. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1917 and worked as an editor and writer for The Broadside, a newspaper for enlisted men. His stories about an inept serviceman, Biltmore Oswald, became wildly popular among the magazine's readers. After the war, he moved to Greenwich Village, where he became friends with writers such as Sinclair Lewis and had a brief affair with Dorothy Parker. He continued to work in advertising while trying to succeed as a poet. After marrying in 1919, he and his wife frequently visited the experimental community of Free Acres in nearby New Jersey. In 1926, he achieved sudden literary stardom when his comic supernatural novel Topper was published to great success." (Harry Ransom Center).

HBS 69397.

$750. (Inventory #: 69397)