HarperCollins, 2000. First UK edition, first printing, with a full number line to 1. Inscribed by the author.
Octavo. 272pp. Original red boards with yellow endpapers, in the original pictorial dust jacket, price £16.99 not clipped, in a removable protective cover.
Inscribed by Archer on the title page “To James”, signed and dated “9.8.2000”. The front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of the James G. Stewart Collection.
To Cut a Long Story Short is Archer’s fourth collection of short stories. It has fourteen new stories, several of which the author says are based on true incidents, and it closes with “The Grass is Always Greener”.
Condition: Near Fine in a Near Fine jacket. The boards are bright and clean, and the text block is clean. There is a bookplate on the front pastedown and a previous owner’s pencilled note (“1st Ed Signed by Author”) at the top of the front free endpaper. The jacket is bright and unfaded, with light shelf wear only.
A dated, inscribed first printing of one of Archer’s best known story collections, with collection provenance.
