NOVELS AND STORIES OF RICHARD HARDING DAVIS, SIGNED BY FOUR OF THE ILLUSTRATORS (INCLUDING CHARLES DANA GIBSON AND HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY), WITH AN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT BOUND IN, HANDSOMELY BOUND

DAVIS, Richard Harding. The Novels and Stories. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916. Twelve volumes. Octavo, contemporary full green morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and covers, gilt dentelles, watered silk endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut and unopened. $5500.

“Crossroads” edition, number 2 of only 256 sets, with an autograph manuscript page bound in Volume I, beautifully illustrated and signed by five of the illustrators, including Charles Dana Gibson and Howard Chandler Christy, handsomely bound by the Monastery Hill Bindery.

Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916), son of novelist Rebecca Harding Davis and editor L. Clark Davis, was one of the foremost journalists of his day, first achieving fame for his reports on Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba. He was equally successful as a novelist and short story writer, his most famous being the story "Gallegher" about a crime-loving journalist, first published in Scribner's Magazine in 1890 (and republished here in Volume III). Much of his work was illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson, one of the foremost illustrators of the turn-of-the-century, and creator of the famous "Gibson Girl." With introductions by Gibson, Booth Tarkington and Theodore Roosevelt. Six of the frontispiece illustrations have been signed by the artists: Howard Chandler Christy (Volume II), Charles Dana Gibson (Volumes III and IV), Frederic Dorr Steele (Volumes VIII and X), E. M. Ashe (Volume IX), and Wallace Morgan (Volume XI). BAL 4547.

A very handsome set in fine condition.