Collins, Wilkie. The Queen of Hearts. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1859.

Price: US$560.00 + shipping

Description: First American edition, published in the same year as the English first. An important early detective/crime fiction story, which is #3 in the Queen's Quorum checklist of the most important books in the genre since 1845. One of the short stories in this collection is The Biter Bit, which "introduced comedy into the detective story - a development of first magnitude." Also important as some commentators argue the book contained the first depiction of a female detective - and a working-class amateur detective at that. 8vo. [ii], 472pp. + 8pp. ads. Parrish 35. Very good in publisher's brown textured cloth with gilt title to spine, professionally rebacked with original spine laid down, gilt on spine a bit faded, some rubbing and bumped corners as well as some foxing and toning.

Seller: Nelson Rare Books, ABAA, Haddonfield, NJ, U.S.A.

Wilkie Collins. The Queen of Hearts (First Edition). Harper and Brothers, New York, 1859.

Price: US$825.00 + shipping

Description: First Edition. A Queen's Quorum title. Publisher's brown cloth. Evidence of erasure on the first blank, small owner address label on the lower portion of the front pastedown. Otherwise Good to Very Good, with moderate wear on the spine ends, chipping to the cloth along the rear hinge, and a spine lean.

Seller: Royal Books, Inc., ABAA, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.

COLLINS, WILKIE. THE QUEEN OF HEARTS. Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1859., New York, 1859.

Price: US$875.00 + shipping

Description: First U. S. edition. Scarce and important Queen's Quorum title. Foxing to a few front and rear preliminary pages, a small library stamp on the title page, lightly rubbed at spine ends and front hinge area, else an exceptional copy with no fading to the covers or spine. Contains The Biter Bit beginning on page 260. A very good copy of a very scarce book. Queen's Quorum 3.

Seller: BUCKINGHAM BOOKS, ABAA, ILAB, IOBA, GREENCASTLE, PA, U.S.A.

Collins, Wilkie. THE QUEEN OF HEARTS. Harpers, 1859.

Price: US$1099.00 + shipping

Description: THE QUEEN OF HEARTS, Harpers, 1859, first American edition, lower corner tips a bit bumped, several leaves with some unobtrusive spotting, else a tight, bright vg+ copy with unbroken inner hinges. A most important title in the genre. Queen's Quorum #3. (The English 3-decker edition in original cloth sold for $18,400 at auctiion in November of 1999).

Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.

Collins, [William] Wilkie. THE QUEEN OF HEARTS .. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1859.

Price: US$1500.00 + shipping

Description: 12mo, pp. [i-v] vi [7] 8-472 [note: first leaf is a blank] 1-8: ads, flyleaves at front and rear, original decorated green cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, brown coated endpapers. First U.S. edition. "The ten linked stories in THE QUEEN OF HEARTS (1859) show Collins at the height of his powers. Three of the pieces are macabre ['Brother Griffith's Story of Mad Monkton,' 'Brother Morgan's Story of the Dead Hand' and 'Brother Morgan's Story of the Dream Woman'], and two of the three are supernatural." - Bleiler (ed), Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror, pp. 235-6. Additionally, the collection includes the detective story, "The Biter Bit." The British three-volume 1859 Hurst & Blackett edition is a notorious rarity. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 408. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 2-25. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 141. See Barron (ed), Horror Literature 2-14. Queen's Quorum 3. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 27. See Glover and Greene, Victorian Detective Fiction 80 and 81. Just a bit of wear to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, flyleaves and first blank foxed, a very good copy. Actually, an attractive copy of a book seldom found in nice condition. (#154534)

Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.