Love Insurance.
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, [1914]. Hardcover. Illustrations by Frank Sharp. Small 8vo. Brown cloth with ivory lettering and pictorial blindstamping. 402pp. Tissue-guarded frontispiece, 7 full-page plates. Very good. Faintest of edgewear only, and internally tight and fine. Item #43844
A handsome first edition of this American novelist's second fiction, preceding his greater fame as creator of "Charlie Chan" the detective. "Love Insurance" first came to the screen in the form of a now-lost silent film comedy in 1919; in 1924 this was remade into "The Reckless Age," and third and last in 1940 as "One Night in the Tropics" starring Jones, Robert Cummings and Nancy Kelly, also Abbott and Costello's film debut. Choice autograph addition: Tipped after the front flyleaf is a fine heavy stock 4 3/4" X 7" head-and-shoulders signed photograph of Allan Jones (1907-92). Near fine. The father of crooner Jack Jones was a singing star of the 1930s, known for the 1937 hit "Donkey Serenade"; he appeared in the Marx Brothers films "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races." Handsome black-and-white portrait of a vaguely smiling Jones; in a blank area at upper left he boldly pens "Best Wishes / Allan Jones." Undated, but of approximately the same vintage as “One Night.” A lovely first of this scarce early Biggers title with appropriate add-on.
Price: $195.00