' SHIP'S COMPANY ' by : W.W. JACOBS : 1st. edition : 1911 : Ilust: Will OWEN

Description: First edition hardback (1911 undated) of 'Ship's Company' by W.W. Jacobs. Previous owners name to first page but otherwise no markings, inscriptions or bookplates with all pages complete and tight to bindings. Boards and spine in very good condition for age - see photos. Page edges have minor foxing for age. Twelve short stories with 23 illustrations in 272 pages. William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 – 1 September 1943) was an English author of short fiction and drama. His best remembered story is "The Monkey's Paw". He was born in Wapping, London, on 8 September 1863, the son of William Gage Jacobs and his wife Sophia, née Wymark. His father ran the South Devon wharf at Lower East. William and his siblings were still young when their mother died. Their father then married his housekeeper and had seven more children. Jacobs attended a private London school before Birkbeck College (Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, now part of the University of London), where he befriended William Pett Ridgcap. In 1879, Jacobs began work as a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank. By 1885 he had his first short story published, but success came slowly. Yet Arnold Bennett in 1898 was astonished to hear that Jacobs had turned down £500 for six short stories. He was financially secure enough to be able to leave the post office in 1899. Jacobs is remembered for a macabre tale, "The Monkey's Paw", (published 1902 in a short-story collection, The Lady of the Barge) and several other ghost stories, including "The Toll House" (from the 1909 collection Sailors' Knots) and "Jerry Bundler" (from the 1901 Light Freights). Most of his work was humorous. His favourite subject was marine life – "men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage," said Punch, reviewing his first collection, Many Cargoes, which gained popular success on publication in 1896. On 7 January 1914, in King's Hall, Covent Garden, Jacobs was a member of the jury in the mock trial of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin Drood. At this all-star event G. K. Chesterton was Judge and George Bernard Shaw appeared as foreman of the jury. W. W. Jacobs died on 1 September 1943 at Hornsey Lane, Islington, London, at the age of 79. An obituary in The Times (2 September 1943) described him as "quiet, gentle and modest... not fond of large functions and crowds." Ian Hay remarked, "He invented an entirely new form of humorous narrative. Its outstanding characteristics were compression and understatement."

Price: 29.99 GBP

Location: Brampton

End Time: 2025-02-09T15:03:59.000Z

Shipping Cost: 42.7 GBP