The Unspeakable Curll: Being Some Accounts of Edmund Curll, Bookseller; To Which is Added a Full List of his Books.

London: Chapman and Hall, 1927. First edition. xii + 322 pp w/index. Light bump to one lower corner, faint sunning to spine. In all, near fine in full blue cloth. One of 535 copies. Bookseller Burton Weiss wrote, “The Handlist of Curll’s publications (pp. 201-314), many of which were erotic, is of immense value, though the compiler imagines, ‘that the more scientifically-minded bibliographer will be infuriated’ by [it]….’It is not complete, in parts it is vague, and some of the notes may be considered to be unnecessarily facetious. I shall not complain if he comes to believe that a little of Curll’s impudence has descended onto his biographer….But Curll was a peculiar man, and so the handlist is peculiar.’ Speaking of peculiarity, it comes as no surprise to me that the list of “Books by Ralph Straus” printed on the verso of the half title, does not include his gay first novel, HEART’S MYSTERY, BEING A STORY IN THREE PERIODS (1903), privately published under the pseudonym Ralph Strode (Young 3679*).”