Death Among The Writers

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1952 Rare Classic biblio mystery in very scarce dust jacket stated first printing by Edwin Alfred Williams, writing as Edwin De Caire, somewhat of a mystery man himself. Said to have been born in Cairo in 1910, hence the nom de plume. Appears to have attended Cambridge in the 1930's, perhaps in agriculture? Lecturer in neurophysiology at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, wherein he wrote Master's thesis in that field in 1964. And yet, in January 1955, he advertised in the Government Gazette that he as a writer, intended to adopt his pen-name in place of his birth name because, "I have been embarassed and inconvenienced by being confused with other persons bearing the same surname as my own, particularly when travelling"(And herein lies the potential for a new biographical mystery to be written!). Dust jacket is unclipped and bears original price of 10/6. There is light wear to corners and edges and a price tag pull on the front panel, but colours remain bright. The boards are clean and bright with very good corners. There are no writings or marks save a penciled price on ffep. There is marginal splay/warp to the outer edges of the boards.