The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - DW's Library

Dennis Wheatley's Library - modern first editions
James Hilton

DW’s copy of ‘Lost Horizon’

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Also in DW’s collection, his copy of Hilton’s first book ‘Catherine Herself’
(1920), written and published while Hilton was an undergraduate

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DW’s copy of Hilton’s ‘Knight Without Armour’ (1933) which
shows how much Hilton enjoyed DW’s first book, ‘The Forbidden
Territory’, which had been published earlier in the same year.
Both books had as their themes adventures in Soviet Russia.

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James Hilton was a friend of DW’s (DW wrote ‘he was a great friend of mine and I missed him sadly when he went to live in Hollywood’), and Hilton wrote a review of ‘The Devil Rides Out’ saying it was ‘The best tale of its kind since Dracula’.

DW had first editions of a number of Hilton’s books, including his first, ‘Catherine Herself’ (1920), written and published while Hilton was still an undergraduate, ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’ (1934), and his classic lost world novel ‘Lost Horizon’ (1933).

DW’s signed first edition of ‘Lost Horizon’ has had an interesting subsequent history. It was offered in Blackwell’s catalogue for £30, and came up for auction at Christie’s New York on 3rd December 2010 with an estimate of US$ 1,000 – US$ 1,500. It fetched US$ 9,375, and was subsequently offered for sale by a leading London bookseller a few years later for £9,500.

References : Officer & Temporary Gentleman page 148
Drink & Ink page 218
Phil Baker pp 294,335,341,342,344,499

Provenance : Catherine Herself - Private collection