Recollections of a Boxing Referee.
London: John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd., [1927]. Hardcover. 8vo. Black cloth with orange lettering and decoration. xxi, 240pp, (8pp ads). Frontispiece, full-page plates. Very good. Binding faintly edgeworn but with stamping strong. Item #43816
A tight and decent first edition of this uncommon pugilistic memoir. Some early owner -- perhaps boxer Howard Bushway -- has neatly penned an inscription on the front flyleaf, presumably from some earlier volume, from English world champion Robert Fitzsimmons (1863-1917): "To my old sparring partner, Howard / Bushway, with best wishes from / Bob Fitzsimmons / 1908." NOT, obviously, in the posthumous hand of the legendary and long-dead British boxer. Bushway was a known sparring partner, though, so perhaps this copy belonged to him and he was simply recording a Fitzsimmons inscription from elsewhere -- unknown.
Price: $50.00