first edition Hard Cover
1904 · New York
by Henry, O.; Porter, W. S.
New York: McClure, Phillips & Co, 1904. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/No Dust Jacket. Octavo. First issue, with "McClure, Phillips & Co." imprint on spine. A lovely, fine copy of author's first book, showing virtually no wear; internally clean and bright, with no markings of any kind, and quite scarce as such. The phrase "Banana Republic" was coined here and is heard today, more than ever. The title is taken from a poem in "Through the Looking glass" by Lewis Carroll: "The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things; Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, and cabbages and kings." (The Walrus and the Carpenter). "The incidents embracing as they do, a variety of subjects, hang loosely together, so loosely in fact, that at times one finds no apparent connection between them at all, and yet in the end one sees how each is intimately related to the other......Written by a less able hand than O. Henry's the book might have been a sad jumble, perhaps comprehensible to none but the Walrus - but as it is, one finds a joy in its every obscurity." (Contemporary New York Times Book Review). A beauriful copy; armorial book plate. (Inventory #: 7676)