London: Faber, 1932. Peacock blue cloth, spine gilt. Cream non-pictorial jacket printed in black with price of 8/6 on front flap. Page size 11.8 x 17.7 cm. Slight spine darkening, else fine. Jacket has faint soiling to very sunned spine; light dust soiling to real panel; a couple of tiny nicks; else fine, no chips, clips, or tears. First printing, in a later issue binding and jacket. >>>> First published 10 March, 1932, at 7/6. McIlvaine A45a gives size as 13 x 19 cm. The first issue jacket had a Rex Whistler design (which PGW once quipped was the best thing about the book). There is some debate about what constitutes the first issue binding, but this copy is in a binding and jacket that matches the description given by McIlvaine for the Sept., 1932, second printing, except that she states that the second printing is so indicated on verso of title (as is usual Faber practice). This copy, made from trimmed-down first printing sheets in binding and jacket of the second printing, is a variant not noted by McIlvaine, Jasen, Gould, Phelps, or Ahearn, though we do note one UK dealer (Gekoski) listing what was probably a copy like this one. Perhaps there were some unsold sheets around when the publisher decided to do a second printing and they bound them up to match the second printing copies. The fact that they needed to do a second printing at all suggests that most of the first printing had been sold, and the number bound like this one was small, perhaps very small. Informed opinion has also suggested this may be a small colonial issue. The book did reasonably well commercially, there being a third printing Dec., 1932, and a fourth (cheap) printing Oct., 1933. A lovely, remarkably nice copy of a rare variant of a book which, because of a cream jacket, would usually show soiling noticably. Wodehouse's only book from Faber, and his only collection of humourous essays. There was no US edition.