Famous Books of Today: DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE, ONE PAIR OF HANDS, BROTHERS IN LAW

London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1957. Hardcover. Good Plus to Very Good/Good Plus. In 1957, English publisher, Michael Joseph, brought together three former bestselling books in an omnibus edition labeled "Famous Books of Today." Although two of the three were fiction and the third a humorous memoir, the books had similar starting points. All three were stories about neophytes struggling in their new professions: Gordon's "Doctor in the House" was about a young doctor just out of school (Gordon was himself a doctor); Cecil's "Brothers in Law" recounted the early days of a newly-minted lawyer (Cecil was a judge as well as an author); and Dickens' "One Pair of Hands," was the story of a young woman with next to no experience hiring on as a cook and cleaning woman (Dickens, a great-grandchild of Charles Dickens was a member of England's upper class who found her calling working at a variety of occupations and then writing about the experience). First Edition Thus, First Printing. About 5 1/2 x 8 inches, 576 pages in a red cloth-covered spine over grey and gold decorative paper-covered boards. Dustjacket's front panel shows books' titles in white lettering in red boxes separated by authors' names in black in narrow green bands. Boards' edges show wear, corners bumped and worn, small bookshop sticker in lower inside corner of front cover, o/w boards free of significant flaws. Fep shows brief 1960 birthday inscription to previous owner. O/w text is clean, complete and unmarked. Dustjacket is price-clipped with numerous small tears and chipping along edges though still 95% whole. It's interesting to note that this particular copy, printed in Hertfordshire, UK, traveled in the course of 60 years to a bookshop in Perth, Australia, before a second long journey to a home in upstate NY, and is still a decent reading copy capable of several evenings' entertainment.