THE MOONSTONE

New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1931., 1931. First edition. First edition thus. 8vo. First Harper's Sealed Mystery Edition. First printing with "E-F" code on the copyright page. Light blue cloth, titles and publisher's logo stamped in black on the front cover and spine, [6], 482 pp. Light wear to spine ends, with moderate sunning to spine; contents clean; Very Good+, with the publisher's seal on pp.313-382 unbroken and largely intact. In a nearly fine, bright dust jacket, (priced $2.00), with minor rubs to the front cover panel, light wear to the extremities, and a tiny nick to upper front corner. Wraparound band gently sunned and lightly rubbed, else sound. An elusive edition of Collins's 1868 novel, first serialized in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round, followed immediately by a three-decked published by Tinsley Brothers. Centered around a large yellow diamond, stolen by an Englishman during the Anglo-Mysore War from an Indian religious idol and brought to London. Bad luck has historically followed anyone who removed the stone from its rightful place, and a layered plot of murder, embezzlement, and deception unravel; all the while, the moonstone's hereditary guardians are relentless in their attempts to retrieve it. The present edition represents an attempt by Collins's American publisher to re-package and re-brand the novel for a more modern audience. They launched their Harper's Sealed Mystery Series in 1929 as a response to Doubleday's Crime Club series, the first of which was issued in early 1928; their prospects were looking good until the Stock Market crashed, after which Harper's sales of books and magazines plummeted. The series was discontinued by the end of 1934. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone title.