Lost Horizon by James Hilton (Macmillan, 1946)

Lost Horizon

James Hilton
Macmillan and Co. Limited, reprint 1946

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.

Originally published in 1933, this copy being a 1946 reprint of the Cottage Library edition (1936). Dustwrapper artwork is different to the 1933 edition, an unidentified artist but a similiar theme to the original.

Winner of the 1934 Hawthornden Prize.

Hardback in dustwrapper. pp [4], 281, [3] blank. Size: 7 x 4.75 inches approx. (176mm x 122mm).

Dustwrapper rubbed and worn; small loss to corner tips and spine ends; a small puncture tear to spine (rear spine fold, 10mm below H of Hilton); age-toned; dusty/grubby in places but especially to spine. Shelf wear and rubbing to spine ends and edges of boards, especially to bottom edge; covers clean but dulled to spine. Foxing to endpapers and first/last pages; age-toning to page margins throughout.

Overall, showing some wear but otherwise a nice, clean copy – attractive in its dustwrapper.

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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.