MACLEAN, Alistair ~ The Guns of Navarone. With tipped-in letter from L. P. Hartley.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Collins, London: 1957.

8vo., blue publisher's boards, lettered in gilt with star to spine; in the unclipped pictorial dustwrapper (14s. net to front flap; THE BOOK a very good copy, small bruise to foot of spine; lightly offset to endleaves with some foxing to the outer edges of text block, sometimes affecting the margins, and most prominent to the first few pages; centerfold a little toned at the binding strings; THE WRAPPER near-fine, just a little spotted and marked to the lower panel and fold. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition. This copy formerly in the possession of collectors David and Patricia Cory, with two of their stickers to the front paste-down. Tipped-in to this example, affixed after the ffep, is a letter from the author L. P. Hartley (of 'The Go-Between' fame), written in the same year in which 'The Guns of Navarone' was published. Dated 2nd July 1957 on his Avondale-headed notepaper, Hartley's letter refers to H.M.S. Ulysses, Maclean's debut novel, as well as the upcoming publication of the present title. "You say that your first book hadn't done too badly", he writes, "but it seems to me that it has done very well indeed, going into a second edition + being translated into two foreign languages. I do congratulate you. Wishing you all success with the new one." A very good copy of Maclean's second novel, with fascinating correspondence from a fellow author, who addresses the letter to 'Mr Stuart' (Maclean's pseudonym). 'The Guns of Navarone' was Maclean's second novel, concerning an attack on a fictional island, once again inspired by the author's own experiences in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. In 1961 the book was adapted into a highly-successful film starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Near Fine