A Handbook On Hanging
by Duff, Charles
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Staten Island, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1929. Small hardcover bound in black cloth with paper spine label. 130 pages. Pictorial end-papers. First American edition, first printing. Full title reads: "A Handbook on Hanging. Being a short Introduction to the fine art of Execution, and containing much useful information on Neck-Breaking, Throttling, Strangling, Asphyxiation, Decapitation and Electrocution; as well as Data and Wrinkles for Hangmen, an account of the late Mr. Berry's method of Killing and his working list of Drops; to which is added a Hangman's Ready Reckoner and certain other items of interest. All very proper to be read and kept in every Family." As Arthur Koestler wrote some years later, "Great Britain is that peculiar country in Europe where people drive on the left side of the road, measure in inches and yards, and hang people by the neck until dead." Duff was not the first to pen a satirical polemic against capital punishment [think Swift] but he may be said to be the most unflagging, updating his polemic every decade from 1928 through 1938 and 1948 and up until 1961. An inestimable contribution to the literary catalog of English satire from Swift, through Blake and Dickens., but finally erudite and effective blow struck against the "ineffaceable indecency of the death penalty, most especially in its rope-and-trapdoor manifestation, perhaps, but in all the other permutations." First published in England a year before, this First American edition is actually the scarcer of the first printings. No previous ownership marks. A clean, square, unmarked copy. Very light, nearly invisible ring stain on rear board and some toning to spine label, else a well preserved copy. Very good. . . First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Great Expectations Rare Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 013354
- Title
- A Handbook On Hanging
- Author
- Duff, Charles
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Hale, Cushman & Flint
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 1929
- Keywords
- Anti-Capital Punishment, Satire
- Size
- 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Great Expectations Rare Books
All books are described in general dealer terms and we make every effort to list descriptions accurately and conservatively. Books may be returned for any reason within 10 days. We ask that customers email us before returning items. For oversize books, multi-volume titles and sets postage will charged accordingly and customer contacted with additional postage costs.
About the Seller
Great Expectations Rare Books
Biblio member since 2005
Staten Island, New York
About Great Expectations Rare Books
We carry a general stock of antiquarian books with a focus on Charles Dickens, 19th and 20th century literature, history and biography.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Spine Label
- The paper or leather descriptive tag attached to the spine of the book, most commonly providing the title and author of the...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- 12mo
- A duodecimo is a book approximately 7 by 4.5 inches in size, or similar in size to a contemporary mass market paperback. Also...