Violet Books

S. Levett-Yeats' The Traitor's Way, A Story (London: Longman's Green, 1901) sports a first-rate embossed pictorial binding depicting a dwarf in blue, black, grey & orange perched on a tower, on grey cloth. There's separate illustration on spine, and a frontispiece by W. B. Gilbert. Levett-Yeats was one of the Yellow Nineties adventure writers who named Stanley Weyman at the head of their impressive legion.

The US first edition of Samuel Levett-Yeats' The Traitor's Way (New York: Stokes, 1901) has an entirely different but equally attractive pictorial binding; besides the spearman on the cover there's also a sword on the spine. The frontispiece by W. B. Gilbert is the same as for the British first. The tale is a swashbuckler of old France in the manner of Alexander Dumas.

This is the rarely seen first edition dustwrapper for R[euben] F[ields] Wells' With Caesar's Legions: The Adventures of Two Roman Youths in the Conquest of Gaul. (Boston: Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1923), which is a variation of the pictorial aquamarine cloth shown at the right. Reuben also wrote a follow-up sequelț, On Land and Sea with Caesar; or, Following the Eagles (Boston: Lonthrop, Lee & Shepard, 1926).

Under the dustwrapper is this even more appealing cloth binding for With Caesar's Legions. The author provided an introduction on the historicity of the tale & there are seven inserted plates, action illustrations by noted illustrator Frank T. Merrill. Though the first edition is a bit rare, there have been reissues in the 1950s, 1960s, & 1990s, since the novel is regarded a mionor classic of the Roman Age.

When I first spotted this book with the spine quite damaged, I could not resist it's beautiful pictorial board, despite that it was a poor copy with the spine chipped so much that part of the cheesecloth showed. I grabbed the book fretful that it would be the only copy I would ever see, & so far it has been. This edition of Mrs Marsh Caldwell's Father Darcy, An Historical Romance is Chapman & Hall's January 1, 1877 New Edition; at the rear of the book is a fascinating & partially annotated catalog of Chapman & Hall books. The Elizabethan romance has swashbuckling & serious historical attributes.

This is the dustwrapper on the first edition of Louis Joseph Vance's The Dead Ride Hard (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1926). The tale is a macabre swashbuckler of excitement and terror set in Budapest in days of the Red Terror -- hence the bright red dustjacket & beneath the jacket, an equally red cloth. The villain of the piece is "toadlike in his venomous stealth, ashen-faced with the deformity of his spirit." The author is probably better remembered for his detective yarns but wrote in a wide array of genres.

Julia L. Glover was a midwestern young adult novelist. The historical adventure True to Her King (Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press, 1946) is shown here in its second printing's dustwrapper. This is a long novelette (or short novella) about two young people experiencing the turbulence of Oliver Cromwell's cruel wars in England.

Attractive decorative cloth graces the first edition of Wilson Barrett's The Sign of the Cross (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1896). There's also a vibrant frontispiece by R. West Clinedinst, and a preface was provided by John Truron the Bishop of Truro. This is a tale tale of the early days of Christianity in Rome, focusing to great extent on actual historical women whose histories are vague enough to permit this High Romance. Nero and his christianized wife Poppaea figure largely.

A(lbertus) T(rue) Dudley wrote boys' adventures with sufficient sophistication to interest adult readers. The binding for The King's Powder (Boston: Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1923) has pictorial cloth depicting Revolutionary soldiers. There's also a frontispiece plus four more inserted plates, action illustrations by John Goss. This historical tale of adventure and warfare opens in New Hampshire in 1774. There is a sequel to this novel issued ten years later as A Spy of '76.

Frank Yerby was the first Black American writer to become a bestseller without having to write exclusively about the Black experience, though he did that too. Many of his readers never knew his race. This is the first edition dustwrapper for The Saracen Blade (New York: Dial Press, 1952). Set in days of Knighthood and chivalry in Italy, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Cairo circa 1194 through 1250, the tale traces the fates of a blacksmith and an emperor who were born on the same day in the same town and whose fates remained linked throughout their lives. For books like this Yerby was sometimes called "The New Dumas" and it's only a mild irony that Dumas, too, had a black heritage.

Frances Winwar's The Golden Round is shown here in its first edition dustwrapper (New York: Century, 1928). Beneath the jacket is a decorative binding. These gloomy medieval adventures of Pier border on heroic fantasy. Pier was a cobbler's son who made good. He became a favorite in the half Christian and half Islamic court of the Italian Emperor Frideric. Jealousy and treason brought him down -- a tragedy once so well famed that Pier is heard even in Dante's Inferno lamenting his horrid fate. The novel intercolates episodes of lusty roguery worthy of Boccaccio, including a glimpse of Frideric's harem called "the Royal Embroidery Works." The Scottish wizard Michael is also a notable character.

G. A. Henty was without doubt the most popular historical novelist of the Victorian era and has in recent years undergone a surprising revival with numerous of his works reissued in trade paperbacks. His first editions cost a fortune but many attractive early reprints still turn up affordably. The present specimen of The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough's Wars dates no later than 1910 (New York: Hurst, n.d.) showing a swashbuckling figure with upraised sword and sweeping red cape. The adventure is set in 1702 during the reign of King William III.