McConnell Fine Books - Antiquarian Books and Fine and Original Leather Bindings

22 vols., 8vo (9" tall). Contemporary full navy blue morocco. Gilt raised bands, interesting asymmetrical triple fillet design framing an anchor in the panels and elaborate gilt tooling to the boards. Magnificent dentelles and leather doublures, watered silk free endpapers. Illustrated with superb photogravure plates in two states. As fine a binding of its period as one could find.

AUTHOR'S CONNOISSEUR EDITION, number 21 of 74 numbered sets, from an edition of 100. Following an illustrious career in the Royal Navy, Captain Marryat pioneered the hugely popular genre of naval and sea- faring stories. Following his first success with The Naval Officer (1829), Marryat resigned his commission to take up writing full-time, and his most popular, autobiographical novel Mr Midshipman Easy (1836) launched him into London's literary scene, where he became closely acquainted with Charles Dickens and others. His immensely charming work was much admired by writers including Ernest Hemingway and Joseph Conrad, and greatly influenced important later works by C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian. Marryat's children's books also enjoyed great popular and critical success, in particular The Children of the New Forest (1847) which is still much loved today.