Thomas J. Wise in the Original Cloth, The Life and Record of the Forger of the Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets

London: Robert Hale Limited, 1946. Very Good condition. Inner flaps from the dust jacket are laid in. NOT a library discard. Previous owner's name on front pastedown endpaper. All other pages are clean and unmarked. A fascinating, well illustrated account. 26 illustrations including a frontispiece portrait. Expanded from the American edition published in 1939 as "Forging Ahead." Six pages of notes by George Bernard Shaw. Complete with errata slip, tipped in. Includes a 23 page appendix entitled: "The Bibliography of the Bibliographer, A Record of His Compilations, Privately-Printed Publications, Edited Works, Forgeries, Piracies, Etc." Bound in the original gilt-stamped red cloth. From the publisher: "In spite of the fame he attained before the exposure of many of the pamphlets in his Ashley Library, Wise was largely a Mystery Man. Practically nothing was known of his early origins and career. He was just accepted by the world as a wealthy, fastidious, and able connoisseur who was the possessor of superb collections of rare books and manuscripts. This work supplies his biographical background. But it does much more. Apart from information given by Wise to him personally, the author has had exclusive use of private papers of well-known men with whom Wise formed associations. In the building-up of his rich library he made great scoops. His most wonderful was the acquisition of the mass of Swinburne's unpublished manuscripts; and the author's two chapters giving a first-hand account of the astonishing events at the poet's retreat 'The Pines' brings out intimate and hitherto unpublished stories of Swinburne. Nor are these the only biographical sidelights. Into the general picture the author - partly from his personal reminiscences and partly from new sources - works in anecdotes and glimpses of Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Edmund Gosse, Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites, Dr Furnival, Clement Shorter, and that little known but much abused worthy Richard Herne Shepherd; all of which throw reflective light on the main character of this forthright book.". First U. K. Edition. Hardcover. Very Good condition/Partial dust jacket. Illus. by NOT a library discard. 8vo. 372pp. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping.