The Mad MacMullochs

A book by Edgar Mittelholzer

Inscribed First Edition in Dust Jacket

London: Peter Owen Limited, 1959.

First Edition. Hardcover.

8vo (5 in x 7½ in) - 234 pages.

This Barbados-set novel was initially released in hardcover, under the pseudonym H. Austin Woodsley, by a publisher other than the one who usually released the first editions of Mittelholzer's hardcover books. It's a quirky family story, written in a style Mittelholzer readers will find familiar. (It is one of my personal Mittelholzer favorites.) The first paperback edition, published two years later in 1961, was released in Mittelholzer's name. (An image of the paperback edition's cover is provided for reference.)

This title is rare in the hardcover edition; this is the second copy we have seen, and the first we've seen in a dust jacket.

As seen in the provided images, this copy of the book is inscribed on the front free endpaper by the author as follows:
For
Anne
----With love---- [very small]
On her birthday!
24th April 1959
Edgar

Additionally, the book is signed by the author on the title page as follows:
"H. Austin Woodsley"
(Edgar Mittelholzer)

The book's Dedication, which appears on the copyright page, reads:
For ANNE B. who read the script
and egged me into publishing it.
I suspect the Anne named here is the same Anne that this copy of the book was inscribed to.

Condition: Very good in boards and a good dust jacket. The boards are very clean, though very slightly bumped on the bottom corners. The unclipped dust jacket is lightly soiled, and worn at the extremities. There is evidence of a dust jacket cover having once been taped to the front pastedown. (We assume it was a cover, since there is no evidence of taping on the dust jacket itself. As noted above, the book is inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, and signed by the author on the title page.