Dr. Christian's Office by Knight, Ruth Adams & Hersholt, Jean - 1048

The World Publishing Company, 1946. Hardcover. Acceptable/Good. 1946. First Edition thus. 243 pages. Illustrated dustjacket over blue cloth. Pages are heavily tanned and foxed throughout. Water marking to top edge of pages to front. Boards have moderate edge-wear with bumping to corners and rubbing to surfaces. Spine has crushing to both ends. Book has forward lean. Unclipped jacket has light edgewear with tears and creasing. Jacket has moderate tanning.

New York: Random House, 1944. First Edition; First Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good binding/near Very Good dust jacket. Signed and inscribed by Hersholt on the front free endpaper. A nice copy with minimal shelfwear to the binding; contents clean and binding sound; dust jacket is a bit shelfworn at the extremities with some chipping including a bit of loss to the front panel near the hinge; dust jacket is now protected and brightened in a mylar cover. Very Good binding / near Very Good dust jacket.

New York: Random House, 1944. First Edition. Warmly inscribed on the front free endpaper to a famous Hollywood columnist, “To Jimmy Starr, With kindest regards from his old friend, Jean Hersholt, Sept. 1944.” An invitation to a testimonial dinner for Hersholt is laid in. Some cloth spots; very good plus in a dust jacket with the interior of the rear flap tissue mended. The radio show featuring Dr. Christian was a long running popular series that made a successful transition to television. The radio show, named for its sponsor, began as the Vaseline Program. You wouldn’t do that nowadays.

New York: Random House, 1944. First Edition. Hersholt’s own copies of the first two printings, both fine in dust jackets, and with long inscriptions by the author on their history, bibliography (the actor-author was a noted book collector) and success. Laid in are three typed letters from publisher Bennett Cerf to Hersholt about the novel, with a page of typescript. Hersholt’s bookplate is in each book; contained in a quarter-morocco slipcase. There were six films that starred Hersholt as the kindly Dr. Christian, one of some 140 films in which he appeared in, the best-known of which is probably von Stroheim’s Greed.