PEAKE, Mervyn.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. First edition, first impression of the author's rare first book. "One of the first casualties of the blitz was Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. The warehouse containing all available copies of the book was among the first to be bombed. Every copy was destroyed, cutting off Mervyn's income from that source and turning into rarities such copies as had already been sold" (John Watney, Mervyn Peake, p. 101). The exigencies of war precluded immediate reprinting and only in 1945 was the book reissued.

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