The Seven Sleepers. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1925.
First Edition. Henry Pitz dustjacket art. Author's first book, a Hubin mystery and novel of intrigue in Europe as a diabolical secret German society plot the next World War. "No more sinister figure has appeared in fiction than Professor Kreutzemark, inventor of many new chemical concoctions" who is featured in the dustjacket art by Pitz, with the good doctor about to inject some kind of drug into the arm of a prostrate woman. Francis Beeding was the pseudonym used by a pair of writers, John Leslie Palmer (1885-1944) and Hilary Aidan St George Saunders (1898-1951). They were Oxford graduates who met while at the League of Nations in Geneva. Palmer was a drama critic who wrote books on the theatre under the pseudonym "Christopher Haddon". Saunders served with the Welsh Guards in WWI and worked for the Air Ministry in WWII, writing the famous pamphlet, The Battle of Britain. From 1946 to 1950 he was librarian of the House of Commons. They also wrote mainstream fiction under the name David Pilgrim. Almost Near Fine, spotting to top page edge, small foxed area at fore-edge of pages, heavy erasure at front endpaper, in Very Good dustjacket with fairly shallow chipping along top front panel and spine ends.
Price: $750.00