With a tipped-in letter to the author from L. P. Hartley.

MACLEAN, Alistair ~ H. M. S Ulysses.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Collins, London: 1955.

8vo., red publisher's boards lettered in gilt to spine; endpaper maps showing the route from Orkney to Murmansk, and a diagram of the ship, respectively; the unclipped wrapper (12s. 6d. net) featuring a design by John Rose; THE BOOK a very good copy, some offsetting to the endleaves and spotting to the outer edges; some heavier spotting extending onto the first few pages; with previous owner's sticker of authors/collectors David and Patricia Cory to the verso of ffep; THE WRAPPER also very good, with some spotting and browning particularly affecting the lower panel. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This copy comes complete with an ALS, inserted via a stub between the ffep and the synopsis page. Addressed to the author under his pseudonym Ian Stuart, the letter is signed by Leslie Hartley (i.e. L. P. Hartley, author of such popular titles as The Go-Between). "Dear Mr Stuart", it reads, "Thank you very much for sending me the two books...it has been a great pleasure to sign them...because it is for a fellow author who has so generously appreciated them. I am greatly looking forward to reading your thrillers" The letter is written on Hartley's Avondale headed notepaper, and is hand dated 13th October 1954, one year before the publication of the present volume. H. M. S. Ulysses was Maclean's debut novel, which drew on his own experiences in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. The plot follows the Convoy FR77 as it travels across the arctic circle to Murmansk, battling great hardships, cold and enemy attack along the way. The book was a huge success, and responsible for launching Maclean's career as a writer. ' The Guns of Navarone' followed shortly after, and the author penned novels at the rate of almost a book per year up until his death in 1987. "Some things lie beyond the knowledge and the experience of the majority of mankind, and here imagination finds itself in a world unknown." An interesting association copy.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good