A HALF-INCH OF CANDLE

First edition, first printing. Original brown cloth lettered in white to the spine with decorative blind ruling to the front panel. In the dustwrapper illustrated by F. Bradford. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents bright and clean except for a small mark to the margin of p. 34 (the same page has a discreet c. 1 cm closed tear to the lower edge). In the neatly price-clipped dustwrapper, rubbed to folds, corners and tips, with a couple of short closed tears to the upper spine edge. A sharp, attractive copy.

Arthur Hamilton Gibbs (1888-1964), author of sixteen novels and two volumes of poetry, was born in London, educated in France, and died in Boston (an American citizen since 1931). He was one of eight brothers and sisters, all authors. 'A Half-Inch of Candle' is a wartime thriller and romance. "Springtime on the Riviera... sunshine, flowers, snow-capped Alps, the dancing Mediterranean... a man and woman in love. But it's the spring of 1939... with Austria already engulfed and Czechoslovakia about to suffer the same fate" (from the jacket).