I was prompted by my election to the Detection Club to seek out their publications – details of which I am compiling for the Detection Club page on this site. The Floating Admiral is a famous ‘round-robin’ novel by various hands, and because of its scarcity, a first edition in wrapper would normally be out of reach for me. But not long after I learned of my election, I won the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Dagger for ‘The Bookbinder’s Apprentice’ and by a happy chance, the prize money was equal to the cost of this copy of the book. Here are the details from the dealer who supplied it:
‘Book Description: Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1931. Hard Cover. Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket. First Edition. First UK Edition. A VG+ copy with a patch of fading to the top edge of the spine in price-clipped D/W with minimal restoration to the spine tips, corners and the very top edge. The only lettering reinstated is part of ‘The’ at the head of the spine. By Dorothy L Sayers, G K Chesterton, Victor Whitechurch, G D H & M Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley. ‘Each contibutor tackled the mystery presented to him (or her) in the preceding chapters without having the slightest idea what solution or solutions the previous authors had in mind’. Extremely scarce in D/W and the first copy we have handled for a number of years.’
