![[GASPEY, Thomas (1788-1821), attributed]. Richmond; or, Scenes in the Life of a Bow Street Officer, Drawn Up from his Private Memoranda. New York: Printed by J. & J. Harper for Collins and Hannay, Collins and Co., et al, 1827.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2002/NYR/2002_NYR_01104_0089_000(042337).jpg?w=1)
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[GASPEY, Thomas (1788-1821), attributed]. Richmond; or, Scenes in the Life of a Bow Street Officer, Drawn Up from his Private Memoranda. New York: Printed by J. & J. Harper for Collins and Hannay, Collins and Co., et al, 1827.
2 volumes, 12o. (Some pale browning and occasional foxing, rear blank endleaves in vol. II lightly dampstained.) Original linen-backed boards, paper spine labels, uncut (labels chipped, boards a bit worn and soiled); cloth folding case. Provenance: P.B. Ambler (pencil signatures on front pastedowns).
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION of "one of the earliest books of true real-life reminiscences" (Queen, The Detective Short Story, p.46). Queen wrote further of the book: "The only important contemporary tales of the Bow Street Runner which have survived are in... Richmond: Or, Scenes in the Life of a Bow Street Officer..., published anonymously but attributed to Thomas Gaspey. The stories were predominantly fictional, and thus contributed, however slightly, to the birth of the modern detective story" (Queen's Quorum, p.9). Halkett and Laing also attribute the work to Thomas Gaspey (1788-1871), while acknowledging that others (including DNB) have attributed it to Thomas Skinner Surr (1770-1847). E.F. Bleiler, in his introduction to the 1976 Dover edition, wrote "My own opinion is that neither man wrote it." The first edition, also of 1827, was published in London by Henry Colburn in three volumes. SCARCE: no copy of the American edition appears in American Book Prices Current in the last 25 years and only two copies are recorded in RLIN (American Antiquarian Society and New York Historical Society [lacking vol. I]). Shoemaker 30745. A FINE, UNSOPHISTICATED COPY OF THIS SCARCE FOREBEAR OF THE MODERN DETECTIVE STORY. (2)
2 volumes, 12
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION of "one of the earliest books of true real-life reminiscences" (Queen, The Detective Short Story, p.46). Queen wrote further of the book: "The only important contemporary tales of the Bow Street Runner which have survived are in... Richmond: Or, Scenes in the Life of a Bow Street Officer..., published anonymously but attributed to Thomas Gaspey. The stories were predominantly fictional, and thus contributed, however slightly, to the birth of the modern detective story" (Queen's Quorum, p.9). Halkett and Laing also attribute the work to Thomas Gaspey (1788-1871), while acknowledging that others (including DNB) have attributed it to Thomas Skinner Surr (1770-1847). E.F. Bleiler, in his introduction to the 1976 Dover edition, wrote "My own opinion is that neither man wrote it." The first edition, also of 1827, was published in London by Henry Colburn in three volumes. SCARCE: no copy of the American edition appears in American Book Prices Current in the last 25 years and only two copies are recorded in RLIN (American Antiquarian Society and New York Historical Society [lacking vol. I]). Shoemaker 30745. A FINE, UNSOPHISTICATED COPY OF THIS SCARCE FOREBEAR OF THE MODERN DETECTIVE STORY. (2)