Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Morley, Christopher. WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1925.
Price: US$7.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 215 pages. Cream cover on boards, blue cloth on spine, blue lettering. There has been a little colour transfer from the blue on the spine to the cover. The previous owner's name is written neatly on the front free endpaper. The interior is clean & tight. The dust jacket is price-clipped and lightly worn. An unusual & humorous book where all the characters in the story are actually dogs. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall
Seller: B A Downie Dog Books, Victoria, BC, Canada
Christopher Morley. Where the Blue Begins. Doubleday, Page & Co, New York, 1925.
Price: US$9.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: White paper over boards, blue cloth spine, a bit darkened, owner's plate, text solid. FER; 3155
Seller: Sleepy Hollow Books, Huntington, VT, U.S.A.
Morley, Christopher. Where The Blue Begins. NY Doubleday Page 1925., 1925.
Price: US$10.00 + shipping
Description: G. Owner inscrp fep. Gissing lived alone except for his Japanese butler in a little house in the country.comfortable & thoughtfully as bachelors often do.It is strange.that he got into these curious adventures that I have to relate. Pictorial binding, interior very good. Binding browned, edge wear, dent back cover.
Seller: Crabtree's Collection Old Books, Sebago, ME, U.S.A.
Morley, Christopher. WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, 1925.
Price: US$10.00 + shipping
Description: PREV OWNER INSCRIPTION ON FEP; CONTAINS 7 ONE ACT PLAYS; INCLUDING TWO THAT HAVE BEEN GREAT FAVORITES WITH AMATEUR PERFORMERS; TEARS AND CHIPPING ALONG EDGES OF DJ; WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS IS WHOLLY DIFFERENT FROM ANYTHING cHRISTOPHER MORLEY HAS DONE BEFORE. iT IS A KIND OF FAIRY TALE, IF YOU LIKE, AN ALLEGORY; PERHAPS; A STORY READABLE FOR ITSELF; FULL OF QUAINT ABSURDITY; LAUGHTER AND SATIRE; BUT WITH AN UNDERCURRENT OF BEAUTY AND MEANING THAT SEMMS TO LIFE IT INTO THE REALM OF THOSE BOOKS THAT GO ON AND ON MAKING FRIENDS AND SPREADING ENCHANTMENT DATE PUBLISHED: 1925 EDITION: 215PP
Seller: Princeton Antiques Bookshop, Atlantic City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$10.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: An Autoiographical/Bographical Sketch 24 pp. In-text drawings plus 3 sepia plates, including one of Rackham illustrations from Where the Blue Begins. Brown & Beige Stiff paper covers.small crease to right corners of covers ,faint discoloring rear cover otherwise VERY GOOD Morleyana. Lee (M-2)
Seller: The Book Store at Depot Square, Chula Vista, CA, U.S.A.
Christopher Morley. Where the Blue Begins. Doubleday, Page and Company, 1925.
Price: US$14.21 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: A near fine copy of the classic bestseller from the 1920s. Wonderful white cover with boat printed on it.
Seller: Rideau Books, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition, Black Cloth Hardcover with paste downs , 273 pages, 7 3/4" tall. 1925 on both title page and copyright page. Very Good. Cover is rubbed and pastedown label on spine is creased and chipped. Spine rubbed and has white mark where something has rubbed down the spine. Inside pages clean and binding is tight.
Seller: Hill Country Books, Boerne, TX, U.S.A.
Morley, Christopher. Where the Blue Begins. Doubleday Page, New York, 1925.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1st Rackham edition (the text was originally published in 1922). 4to, full blue cloth stamped with gilt cover illustration, spine illustration and titling. 4 color plates by Arthur Rackham, 16 line drawings in text and decorated endpapers, top edge gilt. Fraying and shelfwear to board edges and tips, slight darkening to endpapers, spine gilt darkened, else very good without dj or previous owner's marks.
Seller: Bud Plant & Hutchison Books, Cedar Ridge, CA, U.S.A.
Christopher Morley. Thunder On The Left (Signed 1st Printing). Doubleday Page & Co., U.S.A., 1925.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: From the collection of Caroline Riesor Rau & John Wallerstein--a very good copy in blue cloth with light blue decoration to the front cover title panel--A very good copy lacking the dustjacket. This copy is signed by Morley in pencil--along with a notation from Caroline Riesor in red pencil that the signature took place at the Frances Parker School on November 5, 1934. The personal bookplate of Caroline Riesor Rau is attached to the front free endpaper. Caroline Riesor was from Chicago and was married to John Wallerstein, also a Chicago native who ran the Balaban & Katz Movie theatre chain--and later moved to Hollywood to study and work under George Zukor at MGM. He later became friends with Walt Disney and his wife Caroline--a voracious reader--who is given credit for giving Disney a copy of Mary Poppins to read and consider for a movie. Wallerstein went on to become a Board Member of not only the Disney Company--but also of ABC, and McDonalds--where he is given credit for coming up with the term "Supersize It!". A tight and clean copy with edgewear to the upper spine and age toning to the paper title. Otherwise a nice collectible copy.
Seller: Classic First Editions-- IOBA, La Quinta, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$192.13 + shipping
Description: First US trade edition, first printing. Latimore & Haskell, pp. 60-61; Riall, p. 154. Small quarto. Original pale blue linen cloth, titles to spine and front cover gilt, vignette to front cover gilt, illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt. With dust jacket. Colour frontispiece and 3 colour plates, black and white illustrations in the text, by Rackham. Price-clipped jacket rather tattered and dampstained across back and head of front panels (with concomitant slight discolouration to rear cover of binding), neat Christmas gift inscription to half-title (dated 1925). A very good copy, the binding sharp-cornered and bright.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$197.33 + shipping
Description: Legatura editoriale in tela azzurra con illustrazione impressa in oro al piatto anteriore e titoli al ds. Ex libris di collezione privata al contropiatto anteriore e minuscola nota di appartenenza sulla carta di guardia libera anteriore. Ottimo esemplare. Prima edizione illustrata. Hudson, p. 171. 8vo (cm. 25,5), X pp., 1 c.nn., 227(1) pp. Frontespizio figurato, 4 tavv. a colori f.t. (di cui una in antiporta) e 16 ill.ni in nero n.t.
Seller: Libreria Ex Libris ALAI-ILAB/LILA member, Roma, Italy
Price: US$295.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: With a touch of edge rubbing and some smuching of the signatures, still a VG hardcover copy limited to two hundred copies (this being No 176) is a deluxe binding printed on special rag wove paper and signed by Don Marquis/ Christopher Morley/ Cameron Rogers and the illustrator, Edw. A. Wilson, in a grand two part brown slipcase with the pasted color title plate. This is a case where Doubleday, Page has outdone L.E.C. Photos on request. MEDIA SHIPPING ONLY, extra for airmail or international shippng.
Seller: Reader's Corner, Inc., Raleigh, NC, U.S.A.
Price: US$363.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo. (25 x 18cm), 4 full-page colour illustrations, 16 black-and-white drawings in the text, original light blue cloth, light wear, original blue dust jacket, a very good copy. This edition differs from the Doubleday edition in that there is no gilt blocking to the upper cover. The text pages appear to be identical to the Doubleday edition save for the change of publisher's imprint on title page. Cf Latimore & Haskell p.60.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$385.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, American issue, undated. With 4 colour plates and 16 line drawings by Arthur Rackham. 4to, publisher's original royal blue cloth lettered and decorated in gilt on the spine and upper cover. x, 227 pp. A beautiful copy in unusually fine and bright condition. SCARCE FIRST EDITION AND A VERY FINE COPY. A wonderfully imaginative tale out of Christopher Morleys oeuvre. Rackhams colour illustrations are quite unusual and marry perfectly to this splendid story. A highly unusual story in which Mr. Gissing, a gentledog of leisure contentedly residing in Canine Estates with Fuji, his butler (a Japanese pug), on an income of 1,000 bones a year, becomes dissatisfied and leaves home to search for where the blue begins (a purpose to life). "Morley admirably creates a canine world through names alone. There are Mike Terrier, the curate Mr. J. Rover Poodle, the upper-class and working-class neighbors Mrs. Airedale and Mrs. Collie, the nursemaid Mrs. Spaniel and little Shaggy, her puppy, Gissings adopted puppies Groups, Bunks, and Yelpers, haughty Mr. and Mrs. Chow and their "intolerably spotless" little Sandy, the landlady Mrs. Purps, the salesclerk Miss Whippet, the matronly Mrs. Mastiff, the compulsive shopper Mrs. Dachshund, the parishioners Mr. Dobermann-Pinscher, Mrs. Griffon, and Mrs. Retriever. There are the place names like Dalmatian Heights and the little shrine of St. Spitz. These are intermixed with humanless real locales like Paris and Atlantic City, Murray Hill and Fifth Avenue and Broadway and Wall Street, Delmonicos Restaurant and Trinity Church, and real historical personages like the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, and Masefield; to make this our real world only inhabited by dogs, rather than some imaginary planet of dogs." - Fred Patten
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$448.30 + shipping
Description: First illustrated edition, U.S. issue. Quarto. 227 pages. Four colour illustrations as well as line drawings in the text. Blue pictorial cloth gilt. Top edge gilt. The copyright page gives the date as 1922, but that refers to the original unillustrated edition.Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: ''Signed for Henry D. Morley with affectionate greetings from his pseudo-cousin - Christopher Ditto''.Very good indeed in good dustwrapper with large chips at head and tail of spine and bottom edge of front panel.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Morley, Christopher. Thunder on the Left. Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, NY, 1925.
Price: US$699.99 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Scarce first edition/first printing copy SIGNED and INSCRIBED by the author on the flyleaf title page. Inscription sits beautifully above the title and reads, "Ex Libris [name] signed for her by Christopher Morley." The author's signature is exceptionally scarce, let alone in a first edition/first printing copy. Further, this appears to be a presentation copy from the author's personal library (see "ex libris" in the inscription). There is some minor water staining on the bottom edge. There is also some very minor water staining inside the book extending into the top of the last ten pages approximately 1/2" but does not present on the upper edge and does not affect the text in any way. The dust jacket could be described as "tattered" and fair at best, but it is original to the book and remains in one piece. There is one large chip (1-1/2") on the bottom along the spine and another large chip (1-1/2") on the inside bottom of the front jacket flap where some of the text is torn away. The book itself is tight and clean with no writing or other marks. The boards are flat and true, and the corners are square. The book is unrubbed and shows minimal shelf wear. An extremely scarce, highly collectible author's copy. Includes archival mylar cover to protect what is left of the dust jacket. Satisfaction guaranteed!
Seller: rarefirsts, Charlotte Hall, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: Number 100 of 175 copies of the Edition de Luxe, signed by Rackham. 4 color plates and numerous line drawings by Arthur Rackham. Folio. Inscribed by Morley. Inscribed on the endpapers "With homage to Barbara Boston from the dog cherubs-and from Mr. Gissing and Christopher Morley" dated April 2, 1934 with an additional inscription presenting the book to "Lyon from Barbara." Mr. Gissing being of course the character in the book. Original black cloth-backed boards. Spine defective, some staining of boards, endpapers stained and browned but the interior sound and clean 4 color plates and numerous line drawings by Arthur Rackham. Folio Number 100 of 175 copies of the Edition de Luxe, signed by Rackham.
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: A Man's Best Friend [RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. MORLEY, Christopher. Where the Blue Begins. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham. London: William Heinemann; New York: Doubleday Page & Co., [1925]. Edition de Luxe, limited to 175 numbered and signed by Arthur Rackham, this being copy No. 30. Quarto (11 x 7 3/4 in; 281 x 200 mm.). x, [2,], 227, [1, blank] pp. With four color-plates including frontispiece, and sixteen line drawings. Quarter black buckram over cream paper boards. Spine tooled in gilt. Top edge gilt. Partially unopened. Bookplate on front pastedown. A near fine copy. Where the Blue Begins is a satire about a dog named Gissing (after the author George Gissing) who lives alone (except for his Japanese butler Fuji the Pug), in a little house in the country, in a woodland suburb region called the Canine Estates. In this book all of the characters are dogs. Poodles, Spaniels, Chows, Beagles, Sealyham's, Mastiffs, Dachshunds, Whippets, Borzois', Airedales, Dobermann-Pinschers, Pointers and Scotties. The story appeared two years after Morley's collection of humorous essays Pipefuls. "No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does." What breed of dog was Gissing? Read the story and find out. Latimore and Haskell, p. 60. Riall, p.154.
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.