Signed
Queer Side Stories
Inscribed to Victorian art critic & friend, 1900
Queer Side Stories is a collection of whimsical fantasy tales by British cartoonist James F. Sullivan. Several stories are of particular dystopian interest: "Impossibility," "End of War," "The Birth-Rate," and "The Thinner Out." In each, two spirits named William and James carry on a discourse about the creation of humanity and its natural propensity toward evil and self-destruction. "The Birth-Rate" is the most explicitly dystopian, concerning an overpopulated Earth. These stories originally appeared in The Strand Magazine under a feature called "The Queer Side of Things."
Inscribed copy. Inscribed by Sullivan to "M. H. Spielmann / My too-indulgent critic, / with love from Jassef." The inscribee is almost certainly Marion H. Spielmann, the Victorian art critic and scholar who wrote a history of Punch, to which Sullivan contributed on several occasions. Also laid in is a print of a drawing by Sullivan, presumably a self-portrait, within a paper folder intended as a Christmas card, with a lengthy and humorous inscription by Sullivan. This copy was formerly George Locke's Spectrum copy.
Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo, bound in brown ripple-grain cloth. London: Downey & Co. Limited, 1900. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p.209. #11159.
Some splits starting between some of the page signatures, but the binding is pretty sound and overall, a very good copy.
Inscribed copy. Inscribed by Sullivan to "M. H. Spielmann / My too-indulgent critic, / with love from Jassef." The inscribee is almost certainly Marion H. Spielmann, the Victorian art critic and scholar who wrote a history of Punch, to which Sullivan contributed on several occasions. Also laid in is a print of a drawing by Sullivan, presumably a self-portrait, within a paper folder intended as a Christmas card, with a lengthy and humorous inscription by Sullivan. This copy was formerly George Locke's Spectrum copy.
Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo, bound in brown ripple-grain cloth. London: Downey & Co. Limited, 1900. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p.209. #11159.
Some splits starting between some of the page signatures, but the binding is pretty sound and overall, a very good copy.