Limehouse Nights.
New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1926. First Edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. x + 228pp. Bound in fine black cloth, upper cover is embellished with a gilt & green flower in vase within a gilt border, gilt titling to spine with duo-tone illustrated endpapers, coloured top edge. Duo-toned frontis opposite title page, b&w and duo-tone illustrations throughout text. Comprises fourteen sordid stories, all set in and around the Chinatown that was at that time centered on Limehouse in the East End of London. It ran into trouble with various censors at the time, and through modern eyes is horrendously racist, with stereotypes of fiendish Oriental corrupting the flower of English girlhood, etc. etc. Wonderful illustrations by Mahlon Blaine. A bit of light shelfwear, spine lightly rubbed and with some light creases, and a bit canted. Light offsetting from frontispiece to title-page. Otherwise a tight, clean VG+ copy in VG dust jacket. (Dust jacket is a bit darkened and rubbed with a 3 inch closed tear at lower spine and a few smaller tears and chips at edges and extremities. Now protected by removable mylar cover). Item #72189
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