Boys Will Be Boys: the story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et. al.
London: Michael Joseph, 1948. Hardcover. Introduction by Captain C.B. Fry. 8vo. Red cloth with silver spine lettering and decorations, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. 269pp. Frontispiece, illustrations, pictorial endpapers. Near fine/very good. Front flyleaf ownership signature; jacket complete and attractive but edgeworn, with triangular paper loss at upper right of front panel. Item #47755
Tight and nice third printing of this survey of these colorful popular fictional characters from the Victorian-era dime novels or "penny dreadfuls." Of interest and relevance is a decorative-edged bookplate on half-title page boldly signed and inscribed in blue fineline by the modern scholar whose name is most closely associated with Horatio Alger, the prolific novelist famed for his rags-to-riches boys whose exploits filled many a dime novel and many a novel: "With all / best wishes / from / Ralph D Gardner." RALPH D. GARDNER (1923-2005) was a noted New York journalist, radio talk show host and advertising company founder best remembered for a popular 1964 biography and bibliography of Alger's works.
Price: $45.00