This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/17/2023
WRIGHT, Ernest Vincent (1873-1939). Gadsby. A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter “E”. Los Angeles: Wetzel Publishing Co., [1939].
8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black; ORIGINAL DUST JACKET (light edgewear, some chips at corners of rear panel, old tape repairs to verso along ends and corners); folding box.
FIRST EDITION of this literary curiosity and legendary rarity. Gadsby is a novel written as a lipogram and does not contain the letter “e” which Wright ensured by tying the letter “e” key down on his typewriter. Its plot follows the protagonist John Gadsby as he and a group of youths revitalize the dying fictional city of Branton Hills. “The rarity is due to one of those warehouse fires that so frequently occur in the history of unfindable books. Wetzel’s novelty warehouse went up in a mighty blaze (a fireman died) along with most copies of the ill-fated novel, it was never reviewed and only kept alive by the efforts of a few Avant-garde French ‘intellos’ and assorted connoisseurs of the odd, weird, and zany” (Bookride, 24 February 2007). Until today, this is the only copy known to us in the rare dust jacket.