The Mystery Of The Yellow Room

GASTON LEROUX

Publication: The Amalgamated Press Limited / Gordon and Gotch, n d (1908), London and Brisbane

First English edition of this Haycraft-Queen cornerstone title. Colonial Issue. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers, 6, vi, 122 pp., double column, illustrated from frontispiece and two plates by Cyrus Cuneo and drawings, advertisement for the "Daily Mail" Sixpenny Novels which lists the first 53 titles with this being title number 54 in the series. Well-preserved copy of Leroux's seminal "locked room" mystery, an important, early cornerstone of the genre. "The amateur detective in The Mystery of the Yellow Room and several later Leroux novels is Joseph Rouletabille, who has become a cub reporter for a Paris newspaper at the age of sixteen. Only two years have passed when the events of the novel take place, making him one of the youngest sleuths in adult mystery fiction. The case concerns Mademoiselle Strangerson, who had retired to bed in the room of the title. Her cries for help attract her father and a servant, who break down the locked door to find her bleeding and near death. The window is closed and barred, and she is alone in the room. A famous Surete detective, Frederic Larsan, investigates the case, but it is a young Rouletabille who finally solves it" (Pronzini & Muller, p.475). First serialized in the French periodical L'Illustration between September-November, 1907 under the title Le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune, it was followed by a paperback edition published by Lafitte in 1908. The American edition followed (Brentano's, June 3, 1908), with this edition, by London-based newspaper and magazine publishing company The Amalgamated Press, Ltd., appearing shortly thereafter (the best sources we can find put it at September, 1908). While published by Amalgamated Press, whose Daily Mail Sixpenny Novels were rival publications to The Strand, it seems distribution throughout Australasia and the colonies was handled by Gordon & Gotch. At the time, Australia had nothing to compare with the output of London publishers, so Gordon & Gotch, importers and distributors, served as the primary suppliers to newsagents and libraries. By the early twentieth century, they had already captured two-thirds of the print import market, expanding their reach after World War I. (See: Osborne, Roger. 2008. 'A national interest in an international market: The circulation of magazines in Australia during the 1920s'. History Australia 5(3): pp.75.1 to 75.16). Rare; the last copy in the auction record lacked the lower front cover, offered at the Lackritz sale (Christies, 2002). OCLC notes 3 holdings (Occidental, UC Berkeley, RNIB Natl. Library), though we note copies at the Lilly and Fales libraries. Original pictorial covers lightly rubbed and with minor nicks to the fore-edges of the front cover, else a near fine, tight and bright copy. Housed in a cloth chemise and cloth slipcase with titles stamped in gilt on the spine.

Inventory Number: 48559