DICK SANDS. The Boy Captain

1879. Translated by Ellen E. Frewer. Illustrated. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1879. 32 pp ads dated October 1879. Original brown cloth pictorially decorated in black and gilt, all page edges gilt.

First British Edition. A whale hunt in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and the Americas ends in tragedy and [the American apprentice] Dick Sands, as the only surviving crew member, becomes captain -- at fifteen years of age. Not possessing the full skills of a sailor, Dick tries to get the ship east to the South American coast. [They encounter an overturned slave ship, abandoned by its crew but with Africans still (truncated) alive.] The [Portuguese] cook on board has plans of his own and manages to get the ship diverted to eventually land in the Portuguese colony of Angola on the continent of Africa. The cook's plans involve killing Dick and selling the other passengers of the ship into slavery [Kytasaari]. Published in France as UN CAPITAINE DE QUINZE ANS, this tale was first published in English in November 1878, by the American pirate publisher Munro, a low-budget production with just 20 crude engravings, titled DICK SAND (not SANDS). This Sampson Low authorized London edition with over 90 full-page (but integral) illustrations, was published the following month, in December; at the end of that month Charles Scribner's Sons published their edition of the same translation (both dated 1879). This copy is in brown cloth; we have also had copies in green and in blue (no priority). This is an amazingly bright copy, with scarcely any wear -- fine except that one of the original endpapers is mildly cracked. This Sampson Low edition is quite uncommon -- considerably scarcer than the slightly-later Scribner one -- perhaps because this is an example of the UK experiment, in the late 1870s and early 1880s, of binding with staples rather than with string (soon abandoned as a failure, as books would fall apart as the staples rusted). Taves & Michaluk V018; Edwards 18. Housed in an attractive clamshell case with leather label. (Inventory #: 15700)