Andre L. Simon — By Request: An Autobiography

London, The Wine and Food Society, 1957 . First edition. Cloth. A signed presentation copy of the first edition of Andre Simon's autobiography, with a signed letter from the author. Flat signed by the author to the front free endpaper, with a tipped in signed letter to the half title, dated 1957, reading 'My dear Walter Allen, thank you so much for your very kind gift! Please accept this latest (not the last yet!) book of mine with my best wishes, yours Andre L Simon&apos.The first edition, first impression, in the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.Illustrated with a frontispiece and four plates. Collated, complete.The autobiography of André Simon, a French-born wine merchant, writer, and one of the foremost authorities on wine in 20th-century Britain. In 1933, he founded the Wine and Food Society to cultivate a broader understanding of good food and wine, shaping modern wine culture in the English-speaking world, and published the influential A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy. In the publisher's original cloth binding, with unclipped dust wrapper. Externally, excellent, with a touch of fading to back strip. Inscription to front free endpaper, letter pasted to half title. Dust wrapper lacking back strip, with front and rear wraps and flyleaves all present, but detached from one another. Significant chipping and closed tears to wrap perimeters, with handling marks to wraps, most concentrated to tail of front wrap. Internally, firmly bound. Pages bright, with the odd spot. Very Good Indeed . Ill.: Not Stated. Very Good Indeed/Poor.