£75
FIRST EDITION, 8vo, pp. 275, [1] + colour-printed frontispiece. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, dustjacket printed in blue, black and orange. A little toned. Dustjacket price-clipped and chipped with some loss to spine panel, sunning to spine panel and exposed areas of spine cloth. Gift inscription dated 8 Jan 1949 and modern booklabel to flyleaf.
The first edition of the only novel by Glasgow writer Edward Gaitens (1897-1966), a tale of Gorbals life in the first half of the century, influenced by the author's own Glasgow upbringing and his time imprisoned at Wormwood Scrubs as a Conscientious Objector during the first world war. It was republished by Canongate in 1990, but the first printing is scarce: Library Hub records three copies, at Glasgow, NLW and Oxford, with NLS holding a 1949 second edition.
