Books

First editions, first impressions, all presentation copies inscribed to Alan and Félice Harvey, who produced for Ambler the sections of German dialogue printed in Uncommon Danger, and to whom The Mask of Dimitrios is dedicated. A director of an advertising firm, Alan Harvey encouraged his employee Ambler to resign from the company and pursue writing full time in 1938, following Ambler's third novel. Harvey and Ambler worked together at Edward Martin Harvey Advertising Service, and for recreation at Guildhall School productions, where they both performed on stage. After initial success as a writer, Ambler was determined to change careers and "told Alan Harvey of my decision as soon as I had made it and he had been sympathetic. We delayed telling the other directors for only a few weeks. I wanted the few accounts for which I had executive responsibility to be firmly in Alan's hands when I finally left" (p. 129). Ambler found more encouragement from Harvey than from his own publishers, who warned Ambler against leaving his career in advertising behind after completing Epitaph for a Spy. The work is here inscribed in acknowledgment of his bold career transition: "To Alan with best wishes for both our futures. Affectionately, Eric". One day, Ambler went for dinner with Alan and Félice Harvey and returned home to find a telegram announcing that the Daily Express planned to serialize Epitaph for a Spy. "This was wealth", he later declared (Here Lies, p. 131). The set includes four of Ambler's earliest five novels, including his first book, The Dark Frontier, inscribed "To Alan and Félice Martin Harvey with love Eric Ambler". His second novel, Uncommon Danger, is inscribed "To Alan and Félice who did the German and must be heartily sick of the whole thing. With love, Eric Ambler". Evidently, the Harveys wrote the sections of German dialogue that are found inside the book, translating them from Ambler's English at his request. Félice Harvey was fluent in German and published under her maiden name of Félice Bashford an English translation of Helene by Vicki Baum in 1932. In the lead-up to the Second World War, asking Félice Harvey to translate Uncommon Danger for full publication in German was out of the question. Ambler himself acknowledged the publishing difficulties of the times when he stated that, following Hitler's annexation of Austria, Epitaph for a Spy, "with a refugee as its central character, was bound to lose some of its appeal" (Here Lies, p. 131). The dedication copy of Ambler's fifth novel, The Mask of Dimitrios, is simply but familiarly inscribed "with love from Eric", underneath the printed dedication reading "To Alan and Félice Harvey". READ MORE Together, 4 works, octavo. Original cloth, first three titles in blue cloth, spines and front covers lettered in black, blue endpapers; The Mask of Dimitrios in red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jackets. Spines and edges sunned, a few external splash marks with corresponding marks to jackets, contents clean; jackets unclipped, spines toned, else bright, edges rubbed, head of spines chipped, The Mask of Dimitrios with a loss to a letter in the imprint and 5 cm closed tear to foot of front spine fold: a very good set in like jackets. Eric Ambler, Here Lies: An Autobiography, 1985.

Set in a small hotel on the French Riviera, the book tells the story of Josef Vadassy, an innocent language teacher caught in a deadly game of espionage.