Dr. Viper: The Querulous Life of Philip Thicknesse
first edition
by GOSSE Philip
London: Cassell & Company Limited, 1952. . 8vo, blue cloth, somewhat rubbed, with Gosse's "The Sow's Ear Lending Library | Cambridge | Librarian P. Goose" large bookplate on the front free endpaper FIRST EDITION. The bookplate is bright yellow and large 2 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches and is obviously intended to dissuade lenders from forgetting to return a volume.ACCOMPANIED BY Gosse's copy of the page proofs bound in green book-cloth, with the bookplate of Raymond and Pamela Lister, (Raymond was the owner of the Golden Head Press) lacking all inserted illustrations and having editorial (in red) and authorial (blue ink) corrections throughout. Pasted to the front endpaper is a TLs, dated August 1, 1951 from Gosse's editor at Cassell asking him to check various pages and make necessary corrections. There appear to be two hands in blue ink, one of which is definitely Gosse's. As one might expect, at so late a stage in the production of the book, the corrections are mostly of an accidental nature: capitalization, punctuation, leading, etc., but there are a few necessary substantive alterations that correct facts and in some cases clean up the grammer (Inventory #: 2443)