The Hill: a Romance of Friendship

New York: Dodd Mead & Company, 1937. The Hill was first published in 1905. One of more than 50 novels written by its author, it depicts the friendship between two boys who attend Harrow. (Harrow School, founded in 1572 is a highly prestigious boys boarding school in London, still going strong today.) 8vo size green cloth cover with navy blue titles on spine and navy blue titles and decorations on front cover. The cover appears to be an incomplete printing of the design that appeared on other books: Darker colored cloth books of the earlier 1900s (dark blue or black) had a illustration on the front cover of a hilly skyline with a tall building spire - which depicts the campus of Harrow School. This silhouette is made from the color of the clothbound book. The illustration on top of that is completed by two different colors on ink in green and white. In this book, a later edition, the cloth binding appears to be a shade of green represented by the color of the ink in the earlier version. You can see the very light embossing of the hillside and spire and you can see the void as the spire rises between the bands of navy blue ink that make up the design on front cover. These navy blue design elements are part of the sky background. Earlier editions would have used white ink to fill the voids between the navy blue ink and the embossed design of the hillside. It appears that there is a significant publishing error the the front cover design where an layer of white ink is missing. If one didn't know the design of earlier editions, you might just take the cover for an abstract design. There is an embossed illustration on the spine of books on a shelf which also would have been filled in with green ink on the earlier edition and which is devoid of ink in this copy. The printing error has produced a unique cover. The book has 325 deckle edged pages with a unique toning or foxing that resembles a wood grain pattern (please see our photos.) This pattern appears throughout the book with varying degrees of darkness. Horace Vachell (1861 - 1955) was a prolific English author, publishing novels, 22 plays, short stories, essays and autobiographical works. Much of his writing features an idealized, prosperous English way of life. Please see our photograph of the notation from a previous reader of this book - it is her recommendation. The book has a bumped and worn head and heel of spine, sunned spine, penciled name on fep, which is creased at bottom corner, note on half title page and some small white spots on front cover. Thanks for shopping with us. 100% of your purchase benefits charity and supports literacy and life-long learning. . Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.