Hardcover
1917 · London
by Sims, George R.
London: Eveleigh Nash Company, 1917. Original; Inscribed by Sims. Hardcover. Good. Free of extraneous marks. Covers shelf-worn; page edges a bit age-toned; a very occasional spot of foxing. Art school ex-lib. with page end stamps, pocket, bar code inside back cover. Ownership name/date (London 1932) inside front cover.. Blue cloth/boards; navy blue lettering; gilt lettering on spine. No dust jacket. vii + 351 pp.; bw frontis with tissue guard and occasional bw plates. Inscription: "J.A. France, Esq. with pleasant remembrance of an afternoon at Longfield. George R. Sims Feb. 29, 1919" "Sims was an English journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist and bon vivant. Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for Fun magazine and The Referee, but he was soon concentrating on social reform, particularly the plight of the poor in London's slums. A prolific journalist and writer he also produced a number of novels. Sims was also a very successful dramatist, writing numerous plays, often in collaboration, several of which had long runs and international successHe used his excellent police contacts to write about the Ripper murders for the publication The Referee, under the pseudonym Dragonet. Sims claimed that in 1888 a coffee stallholder in Whitechapel saw a portrait of Sims advertising his latest book, and believed he was the likeness of a suspicious man with bloodstained cuffs who had come to his stall shortly after the double murder, and announced to the stallholder that he would hear of two more murders the following day. Sims would make frequent references to this story, and appeared to believe the Ripper looked exactly like himself. A successful playwright, his most notable success was The Light of London, his autobiography My Life - Sixty Years Recollections Of Bohemian London, was published in 1917. Sims later came to believe the rumours that the Ripper was Montague John Druitt. In 1913 to counter these rumours Inspector John Littlechild wrote to Sims naming Dr Tumblety as a more likely suspect, this became known as the Littlechild letter. Sims died in 1922.
(Inventory #: 156875)