My modest Wodehouse collection expanded ever so slightly this past week. When I first began collecting P.G. Wodehouse first editions it was far easier to find a bargain here and there. Now, no chance and these very early stories are near on impossible to get hold of with the original dust jacket in any condition. I always had a standing rule that I’d never purchase a first edition if it had a facsimile wrapper as it just didn’t feel honest to me. If you’re going to house your edition in a fake you might as well go out and grab a cheap paperback copy. As time has gone on, I’ve remained pretty true to this ethos which in turn has meant I simply haven’t been collecting much of anything in recent years.

These early stories however are a bit different. The wrappers are so rare and many collectors will never see an original version and if they do they’re often in tatters. So I’ve recently given myself permission to make an exception in some cases. The first US edition of A Damsel In Distress is one such example of this. It’s one of the few Wodehouse tales I’ve not read before so when I was able to grab a solid first edition recently, I felt no qualms in also seeking out a facsimile jacket to go with it. The jacket illustration is so beautiful it felt a shame not to and the facsimile isn’t some cheap photocopy but is made from high def photographs of an original.

According to Richard Usborne, this story is ‘almost a Blandings novel’ and as far as I’m concerned you don’t get much better than that. Add to this that Fred Astaire starred alongside George Burns, Gracie Allen & Joan Fontaine in the 1937 film adaptation and you know you’re on to a winner. I look forward to diving into it with more rapturous intensity than a small child looks upon diving into a saucer of ice cream.

Above is a preview of the stunning jacket design for the US First Edition of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. You can view a full, large version here. Go on…I’ll wait.

While the US First Edition was published in 1967, Bulgakov actually started writing the novel in 1928 but burnt the first manuscript in 1930 convinced that there could be no future as a writer in the Soviet Union. A thoroughly  wonderful read I’ll not attempt a review of what many consider to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century but I will throw out a fun fact that many music lovers may already be aware of. Sympathy for the Devil as written by Mick Jaggar was inspired by The Master and Margarita (a gift from Marianne Faithfull).

All that said - can we focus on the artwork created by Mercer Mayer? I believe this to be the very same Mercer Mayer responsible for the Little Critter children’s book. I do hope this is true because I can remember as a child leafing through my sister’s copy of Little Critter and finding it utterly creepy. Having conduct the briefest of research I can’t wholely confirm this is the same M.M. but it does seem likely as Mayer had moved to New York City in 1964 where he soon persuaded editors at Harper & Row (publishers of this particular edition) to give him work as an illustrator.

This fine edition now sits proudly on a shelf awaiting the companionship of further Bulgakovs if I can find a little time to read them. I’ll really just have to make the time.