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Haggard, H. Rider.
King Solomon's Mines.
Publisher: Cassell and Company, London, Toronto, Melbourne and Sydney;
Date of Publication: 1933
Stock Code: 15444
Reprint after the first of 1885. Octavo, pp., xv, [1] blank, 298. Preliminaries mispaginated. Publisher’s original tangerine cloth; titled in black to spine; black rule border to boards; white end-papers. In the original bright orange pictorial dust-jacket; advertisements to flaps and to lower panel. Slight loss to head of jacket spine-panel; minor shelf-wear to jacket extremities; slight soiling to lower panel; otherwise a bright and rather fresh jacket. Very slight shelf-wear to extremities of binding; otherwise bright, solid, and strong. Light scattered foxing to fore-edge, and a few spots internally but generally clean and in good order. A very good or better copy in like jacket. An attractive copy of the novel that spawned the ‘Lost World’ genre. ‘In 1885 one of Rider's brothers asked his opinion of an adventure story that had just been published, Treasure Island, and Rider replied recklessly that, though it was certainly a good tale, he himself could write a boy's book just as good. His brother challenged him, and for the next six weeks Rider spent his evenings at his pedestal desk in his Kensington house, trying to win the wager with a tale of African adventure. [...] King Solomon's Mines met with instant success and transformed his life.’ (ODNB). £85.00