Lost Horizon
James Hilton
London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd, seventh impression 1935
James Hilton’s famous novel of finding the utopian Shangri-La high in the Himalayas. Made into an equally famous film by Frank Capra (1937) starring Ronald Coleman and Jane Wyatt, and less famously as a film musical (1973) starring Peter Finch, Liv Ullman and George Kennedy, with music by Burt Bacharach.
Lovely dustwrapper art by the unidentified KB (or BK). The same design (although text to rear panel is different) as found on the 1933 first edition, and with original price of 7/6 to front flap.
Comes with the remains of the wrap-round band announcing winner of the 1934 Hawthornden Prize.
Hardback. Publisher’s green cloth with gilt title to spine, in a dustwrapper. pp [4], 281, [1] blank, [2] publisher’s book list. Size: 7.5 x 5 inches approx. (193mm x 130mm).
Dustwrapper rubbed and worn, a few short edge tears and small loss to spine ends and corner tips; foxed/spotted and lightly marked in places. Cloth clean and bright, some fading to spine and offsetting matching dustwrapper art; slightly turned-in at spine ends; boards lightly bruised to corners. Endpapers showing tanning and offsetting; edges of page-block spotted with some encroachment onto page but otherwise generally clean throughout. Wrap-round band missing a piece, foxed, and otherwise worn.
Overall, showing wear but remaining a particularly nice, clean copy – and uncommon to find with dustwrapper and wrap-round band.
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References
An interesting look at the publication history of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon can be found at Michael Organ’s blogspot.
