The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - DW's Library

Dennis Wheatley's Library - non-fiction
History

DW’s copies of Prescott’s ‘The Conquest of Mexico’,
given to him by his first wife at Christmas 1922

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Nine volumes (from the original twelve)
of DW’s set of Prescott’s ‘Works’

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The Autobiography of Ousama Ibn Mounkidh
(1095 – 1188)

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DW had an extensive interest in, and was well read in the subject of World History.

This wide interest in history included an interest in the history of the Americas.

He had Prescott’s ‘The Conquest of Mexico’, 2 vols, given to him as a Christmas present by his first wife in 1922. Presumably he tipped her off on what he would like as a present.

He also had a uniformly bound set of Prescott’s ‘Works’. Three volumes have somehow sadly gone adrift, but the remaining nine volumes remain happily together on the shelves of a prominent collector.

To demonstrate the breadth of his historical interests, DW also had, given to him at Christmas 1930 by his lifelong friend Hilda Gardner (and she would have been well informed as to his literary tastes), the autobiography of the eleventh century Muslim diplomat and man-of-letters Ousama Ibn Mounkidh, which he used later on in life as source material for his novels ‘The Eunuch of Stamboul’ (1935) and ‘The Sultan’s Daughter’ (1963).

Provenance : Private collections