THE LAST POOL: AND OTHER STORIES.

1950 1st edition. Small 8vo (185mm x 129mm). Ppviii,216. Binding B - yellow boards with red spine titles.

Thirteen short stories about the countryside: three of them with a theme of trout or salmon fishing in Ireland; several on fox-hunting in Ireland and in Snowdonia; one on "The Drawing Of The Curranwood Badgers"; and the others largely on wildfowling, shooting and poaching. Patrick O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ, changing his name by deed-poll in 1945. He wrote several books under his birth-name and a great number as Patrick O'Brian, including the Aubrey-Maturin series of maritime novels. The Last Pool was the first book he had published under his new pen-name. There are two variant bindings of this book. Binding A. First issue. Light green cloth with spine title printed in dark blue. (130mm x 190mm). Binding B. Second issue. Yellow paper-covered boards with spine title printed in red. Slightly smaller format than the first issue (130mm x 185mm). Apart from the 5mm difference in height, the dust-wrappers of the two issues are the same. This copy is of the second issue - Binding B*. Scarce in dust-wrapper. Other than a few short closed tears and a small chip to the head of the spine the dust-wrapper this copy is quite respectable. It is now protected in a removable acetate sleeve.