Hudson, W. H.:

$2,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE PURPLE LAND THAT ENGLAND LOST. TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES IN THE BANDA ORIENTAL, SOUTH AMERICA. First edition of the author's first book, in the primary binding ("both varieties are extremely scarce" - Carter). The 32pp. catalogue in the second volume is dated October 1885. THe novel tells the story of a young English gentleman in Latin America, fleeing from Argentina to Uruguay with his young bride, joining with local rebels. Borges famously loved the novel, calling it the "best work of gaucho literature" (Borges in Other Inquisitions, 1952). Hemingway felt differently, glibly calling the British fantasy "a very sinister book if read too late in life" in The Sun Also Rises.Although the exact number of copies printed is not recorded, the edition was relatively small, and sales slow, resulting in a likely slightly later, more economical publisher's binding variant of undecorated dark blue cloth, and a single volume remainder "Cheap edition" comprised of the original sheets issued in 1887. Hudson himself noted in 1902 that "A small edition was published, which did not sell -- except as waste paper, or as a remainder. Now it cannot be had."

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