THE GUNMAKER OF MOSCOW;
or, Vladimir the Monk. New York: Robert Bonner's Sons, 1888. Original buff wrappers.
First Edition in book form, published in the year following the death of this prodigious New England writer (born in Maine). This tale had first appeared in the New York Ledger in 1856, the year in which Cobb began his lifelong association with that periodical.
To it [the Ledger], in thirty-one years, he contributed 130 novelettes, 834 short stories, and 2,305 brief sketches! (There already lay behind him 36 published novelettes and 200 short stories.)... As a literary figure Cobb hardly exists; but he is of interest as the first American to apply "mass production" methods to writing. His stories were immensely popular, since they were nicely fitted to the viewpoints and opinions of the semi-literate public at which they were aimed; they were at once moral and sensational, romantic and naive, pious and sentimental. He had real dramatic skill and a certain knack for rough-and-ready characterization, but his enormous output belongs more in the realm of manufacture than in that of literature. (K&H)
This copy is still in the delicate original wrappers, and is in remarkably near-fine condition (bottom 1/2-inch of spine chipped away, edges of a few leaves a little ragged). Wright III 1121. Housed in a cloth slipcase with leather label. Item #4664
Price: $150.00