Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Forester C. S.. The Happy Return. Michael Joseph (1937), (london), 1937.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Green cloth, lettered in silver to the spine. To the half title it is signed by Forester, without inscription. A bit of light staining along the lower few inches of the cover fore edges. There is also some staining at the mid-page fore edges, near the front and rear of the text. Former owner name and date to the front pastedown. Very tight. The dust jacket also shows staining along the fore edge flaps. Chips to the spine ends and corners. Some darkening to the spine. Light soiling and other lesser edge wear. Original price of 7/6 to the lower, front flap. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 287 pages; Signed by Author
Seller: Scott Emerson Books, ABAA, El Cajon, CA, U.S.A.
Forester, C S.. The Happy Return SIGNED COPY. Michael Joseph, London, 1937.
Price: US$1293.62 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Not proce clipped with original 7'6 net. No inscriptions. First Printing in removable protected wrapper. No tears or pieces missing in VG+ condition. A splendid copy. ! The first Hornblower story. SIGNED Bookplate without dedication enclosed. Very Scarce in this condition and with Signature.
Seller: Surprise Books PBFA, Stroud Glos, United Kingdom
FORESTER, C. S.. The Happy Return. Michael Joseph, London, 1937.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Edition of first Hornblower book. 12,000 Copies were printed of the First Edition. Extremely scarce. This is a remarkably bright and pleasing copy. There is a faint vertical crease along the spine. There is a previous owner sigature on the paste-down and a Book Society Book Plate on the ffep. Forester's signature is on the half-title, along with a paste-in bio. Cover art by Rowland Hilder. Very Good / Very Good.
Seller: First Place Books - ABAA, ILAB, Walkersville, MD, U.S.A.
FORESTER C S. The Happy Return. Michael Joseph, London, 1937.
Price: US$2522.55 + shipping
Description: First UK Edition. Publisher's green cloth with silver lettering to the spine. FLAT-SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR ON THE HALF-TITLE PAGE. A VG+ copy in a D/W that is VG indeed with some minor chips and tears to extremities (not affecting any lettering), and with the fold of the front flap a trifle worn. Flat-signed copies (as opposed to the more common first editions signed on a book-plate) are exceedingly uncommon. The First Hornblower.
Seller: James M Pickard, ABA, ILAB, PBFA., LEICESTER, United Kingdom
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Set of the first three Hornblower books in the series, all first editions inscribed by author C.S. Forester: The Happy Return. London: Michael Joseph, (1937). First edition, first issue jacket, with the 7/6 price and the review for The General on the rear panel. Signed and inscribed by C.S. Forester on the title: with a signature, and "To Ingle Barr with every good wish April 1957--twenty years later; the handwriting does not seem to have changed" with a second signature. Publisher's green cloth, the spine tooled in silver, in the dust jacket. 7 3/8 x 4 3/4 inches (18.5 x 12.5 cm); 287, [1] pp. A clean copy of the jacket, with some edge wear including small losses to the head of the spine, the interior of the jacket foxed, the name "Holly" faintly in ink at the head of the front panel, the cloth clean, minor edge foxing, but a superior example. With the bookplate of Ingle Barr; A Ship of the Line. London: Michael Joseph, (1938). First separate edition, first issue in the blue cloth, the jacket with the 7/6 price. Signed and inscribed by C.S. Forester: a signature on the half-title, and "To Ingle Barr, nineteen years after the first signature, with best wishes from C.S. Forester April 1957" on the title. Publisher's blue cloth, the spine tooled in silver, in the dust jacket. 7 3/8 x 4 3/4 inches (18.5 x 12.5 cm); 304 pp. [1] p. ads for The Happy Return. A clean copy of the jacket, with some edge wear, the interior of the jacket foxed, the cloth slightly faded at the spine, the name "Holly" faintly in ink at the head of the front panel, minor edge foxing with light foxing to preliminaries, but a superior example in all. With the bookplate of Ingle Barr; and Flying Colours. London: Michael Joseph, (1938). First separate edition, first issue in the red cloth, the jacket price clipped, with the "Book Society Choice" bellyband. Signed and inscribed by C.S. Forester on the half-title: a signature on the half-title, and "To Ingle Barr with the same good wishes. April 1957", with C.S. Forester's signature. Publisher's red cloth, the spine tooled in silver, in the dust jacket. 7 3/8 x 4 3/4 inches (18.5 x 12.5 cm); 284 pp. [3] pp. ads. A clean copy of the jacket, with some edge wear the interior of the jacket foxed, the name "Holly" faintly in ink at the head of the front panel, the cloth bright, minor edge foxing with light foxing to preliminaries, but a superior example in all. With the bookplate of Ingle Barr. Attractive copies in the scarce dust-jackets of the first three novels (by chronology of publication) in the author's "Hornblower" sequence, set in the British Navy at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. These are the progenitors to Patrick's O'Brian's superb Aubrey and Maturin sea novels. The second and third novels were initially issued in a combined volume. A very rare inscribed set in good jackets.
Seller: Neverland Books, waalre, Netherlands