STARRETT, VINCENT (CHARLES VINCENT EMERSON STARRETT) — Flame and Dust

Chicago, IL: Pascal Covici, Publisher, 1924. Limited Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. This edition is limited to 450 numbered and signed copies - this is book #1, and has the author's initials following the number on the limitation page. This book is in Very Good + condition and is lacking a dust jacket. The book cover has a linen spine and marbled paper covered boards. The linen has some generalized darkening / toning, especially to th spine end. The paper covered boards are in clean, bright condition. The endpapers have a different set of marbled endpapers. The text pages are clean and bright. "In 1920, he wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche entitled The Adventure of the Unique "Hamlet". Starrett on at least one occasion said that the press-run was 100 copies, but on others claimed 200; a study of surviving copies by Randall Stock documents 110. This story involved the detective investigating a missing 1602 inscribed edition of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Starrett's most famous work, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, was published in 1933. Following that, Starrett wrote a book column, "Books Alive," for the Chicago Tribune. He retired after 25 years of the column in 1967. He often mentioned Sherlock Holmes in these columns, which appeared in the book section of the Sunday newspaper. These references were collected and annotated by Karen Murdock and published under the title "Sherlock Alive" in 2010. Starrett was one of the founders of The Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) , a Chicago chapter of The Baker Street Irregulars. Starrett's horror/fantasy stories were written primarily for the pulp magazine Weird Tales, and are collected in The Quick and the Dead, (Arkham House, 1965). His story "Penelope," published in the May 1923 issue of Weird Tales, was also featured in the anthology The Moon Terror (1927) anonymously edited by Farnsworth Wright, and published by the magazine. " (from Wikipedia). Very Good+ .