The Adventurers

ERNEST HAYCOX

Publication: Little, Brown and Company, 1954, Boston

First edition. 8vo, Tan cloth, titles stamped in green on the spine, color, pictorial front and rear endpapers, 332 pp. Tipped in on the verso of the front free fly leaf is a typed note signed from Haycox to Arnold F. Gates (1914-1993), future notable Lincoln/Civil War scholar and a former World War II soldier returning from the war. Haycox offers him some sound advice on a note that is on Haycox's personal stationery and reads :Dear Gates: Your address indicates you've returned to civvies. Good luck to you and I hope the readjustment period won't be too difficult. You'll have some trouble re-orienting yourself, but the main thing is to chop off the past and get going in another direction as quickly as you can make your mind change gears. Very best luck to you. Sincerely, Ernest Haycox, January 3, 1946." Boldly signed in black ink. As a World War I veteran himself Haycox knew of what he wrote! Above the letter Gates signs in ink "Nov. 27, 1954, Garden City, NY." Ernest Haycox died in 1951 at age 51 and his autograph material such as letters are seldom encountered. Fine bright, tight copy in a bright dust jacket with minor rubs to the extremities. An exceptional copy in a sharp dust jacket with an interesting and scarce author's letter.

Inventory Number: 45973