THE MOONSTONE. A Novel

1868. [a handsome copy] With Many Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868. 4 pp preliminary undated ads (with list of Select Novels ending at No. 316). Original dark blue-green pebbled cloth.

First American (and first illustrated) Edition of this classic of detective fiction, issued in the same year as the London three-decker. THE MOONSTONE marked the end of Collins's peak period as a novelist: it was preceded by THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1860), NO NAME (1862) and ARMADALE (1866), and was followed by a transition into sensation or propaganda fiction -- especially regarding marriage and inheritance laws. Commenting on T.S. Eliot's opinion of this book ("the first, the longest, and the best of detective novels"), John Carter wrote Mr. Eliot is inaccurate in his first adjective, a little rash perhaps in his second, but unlikely to meet with much disagreement over his third. If Poe created the short detective story, Wilkie Collins is the undisputed father of the full-length variety... The American edition includes 66 wood engravings interspersed throughout the text. This is a close-to-fine copy, with only the merest hint of wear at the extremities. The spine gilt remains bright, the original endpapers are clean and intact, and there is no foxing on the leaves. Gasson pp 106-108; Parrish & Miller pp 73-74; Wolff 1368a; a Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone of Mystery Fiction.