I Am Your Brother : Rex Whistler Wrapper Artwork

The First UK printing published by Collins, London in 1935. The BOOK is in Very Good++ condition. Some pushing to the spine ends. Slight dulling of the gilt titling to the spine with a little dustiness to the text-block. Mild offsetting to the blank end-papers. Attractive bookplate of John Haddon Crowd Holman Sutcliffe to the front pastedown. Underneath the bookplate, there is a small penned inscription : 'Lincoln 1967 2/6'. Sutcliffe was an 'affable and bohemian craftsman-decorator who transformed country houses and had a Farrow & Ball paint named after him' (Times obit. 21/9/22)). The WRAPPER is complete and is in Very Good+ condition. To the verso, there is some tape reinforcement to the upper and lower edges. A small chip to the lower front panel. Light toning and fading to the spine. Some age related markings and light scuffing to the rear panel in places. The Rex Whistler wrapper artwork remains very striking in the removable Brodart archival cover. 'G. S. Marlowe was the pseudonym of Gabriel Beer-Hofmann, about whom not much is known. He was born in 1901, the son of Viennese Jews, and was active in London in the 1920s and 30s as a theatre director, screenwriter, and author. Records indicate he also travelled to America at least three times between 1926 and 1934, and he may have been involved in screenwriting in Hollywood. In 1934, he married Sybil Ryall at Westminster St. Margaret in London, and in 1939 he legally changed his name to Gabriel Sebastian Marlowe. His sole literary success was 'I Am Your Brother' (1935), which garnered positive (if bemused) critical reviews and attracted a cult following. According to his friend Julian Maclaren-Ross, Marlowe left England for Norway in 1940, and it was long presumed that he perished there during the Second World War, a rumour he apparently never bothered to contradict. However, more recent evidence indicates that he lived the remainder of his life quietly in England and died in 1971 at St. Albans, Herefordshire' (Valancourt Books). A very scarce title. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.