HEARTS OF THREE.

London: Mills & Boon, [1918]. First edition. Moderate rubbing to covers, contemporary previous owner name mostly effaced from front fixed endpaper, else about very good. Rebound in olive green cloth stamped in black with "Ex Libris WHS" (i.e., WH Smith) monogram near bottom of front cover; 292 pp.

Text includes the poem "Back to Back Against the Mainmast" by George Sterling (on pp. xi-xii) - this was omitted from the US edition. This true first edition of this title, undated, but with 27 other Jack London on list facing title page. A later Mills & Boon printing added the 1920 publication "Island Tales" to the list. This UK edition precedes the US edition by 2 years. In his "Call of the Atlantic: Jack London's Publishing Odyssey Overseas, 1902-1916" (Oxford Univerity Press, 2016) author Joseph McAleer notes that "Most first edition sales in England were not directly to the public but to large circulating libraries like Mudies and W. H. Smith. (p. 4). Later noting that W. H. Smith ranked London as ". . . one of its top-selling authors." (p. 156). It is likely that W. H. Smith replaced the notoriously shoddy Mills & Boon binding with a more durable and attractive one of their own. This copy apparently never circulated. A scarce first edition. BAL 11978; Sisson & Martens p. 100; Woodbridge 157.