This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/28/2023
[ANDERSON, John Henry] H[ingston], E.P. BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN HENRY ANDERSON, THE GREAT WIZARD OF THE NORTH. England: Printed by John Tonks, New Street, Birmingham, 1868. Original brown cloth decorated in gilt and stamped and ruled in blind, bright yellow endsheets. A.E.G. Three-quarter length wood engraved portrait frontispiece of Anderson. Text within a single rule border, the corners decorated with a floral device. [1-5] 6 – 24. Tall 8vo. All but disbound, with spine mostly perished, library cancellation stamp to ffep and following title page, binder’s rubber stamp to rear pastedown. Folding paper case. Toole Stott 59, locating only one example. RARE.
As Edwin A. Dawes wrote in his 2014 biography of The Great Wizard, “Hingston wrote the Biography of John Henry Anderson at a pivotal stage in Anderson’s career. He was on the point of departure for Australia via New York in an endeavour to retrieve his fortunes following the catastrophic fire that ended his Covent Garden Theatre season in March 1856, to be followed by the collapse of his bank, the British Royal, which left him penniless.” Dawes goes on to state that this biography is the “greatest rarity of Anderson publications.”