RECOLLECTIONS OF A DETECTIVE POLICE-OFFICER
First authorized edition in book form of these collected police detective stories, the first ever of their kind to feature an investigator from Scotland Yard.
Very good.
Price: $2,000.00
RECOLLECTIONS OF A DETECTIVE POLICE-OFFICER
"Here is a written description of the persons of this gang of blacklegs, swindlers, and forgers," continued the commissioner, summing up his instructions. "It will be your object to discover their private haunts, and secure legal evidence of their nefarious practices."
Originally published in CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL, the thirteen stories of the First Series (plus an eight additional episodes gathered three years later in the Second Series) mark the first appearance in fiction of a Scotland Yard detective. Russell, in the persona of "Waters," presented his narratives as first-person recollections in line with the conventions of the mid-Victorian police memoir then enjoying great popularity, while offering to the reading public a new kind of hero: a policeman with intelligence, curiosity, and integrity.
Detective fiction has always pressed up against the porous borders of that much-derided segment of popular literature now known as "true crime": just as the latter is frequently embellished and distorted for the sake of a better story, crime and detective fiction in its earliest forms borrowed the shock of the real, insisting as a matter of genre convention that the events depicted were only lightly fictionalized, that the reader was given entrée into the "marginalized social space between 'respectable' and 'criminal'" (Saunders) occupied by the real-life police detective; that they were being told a true story by an insider. Verisimilitude was the point: "The genre was designed to take the private spaces, operations and methodologies of the police force, and publicize them for the reader, and Russell himself explained that his memoir writing was designed to present an inside view into policing for readers" (Saunders). Given the bedrock importance of this interplay between the real and the unreal at the dawn of detective fiction, it is perhaps unsurprising that Sherlock Holmes, the most famous fictional private detective of later Victorian decades, would inspire a legion of devotees to insist on his factual reality, perfectly well aware that this was not true and sublimely indifferent to it.
A handsome copy of this scarce and vital Queen's Quorum and Haycraft-Queen title — especially uncommon complete in one volume.
Read more: Saunders, 'To Pry Unnecessarily into Other Men's Secrets': Crime Writing, Private Spaces and the Mid-Victorian Police Memoir; Laurence Worms, "Mysterious Waters"; Ellery Queen, Queen's Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story, #2.
The Object
First edition. London: J. & C. Brown & Co, 1856. Two octavo volumes bound in one, 6.25'' x 4''. Contemporary half calf, marbled boards. Gilt-ruled spine with spine label. Lacking frontispiece, as sometimes seen. [8], 310 pages. In custom cloth slipcase. Sympathetically rebacked with reinforcement to hinges. Some rubbing, chipping rear joint. Overall, clean and sound.
The Fine Print
We work hard to meet our ethical responsibility to describe our material accurately. All items are guaranteed as described and may be returned for any reason within 30 days. Please notify us before mailing a return.
We guarantee the authenticity of our items. All materials are original (meaning not facsimiles or reproductions) unless otherwise noted. First editions (meaning first edition, first printing) are explicitly stated. TPM is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and upholds their Code of Ethics.
All photographs are of the actual item for sale. We're happy to provide additional images on request.
All domestic orders ship gratis. For orders under $250, free USPS media mail shipping is included; orders $250 and over ship USPS Ground Advantage. International orders over $1000 also ship gratis. Expedited, overnight, as well as other carriers (UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.), may carry additional costs beyond quoted rates. All orders receive tracking information and a direct contact in case of any questions.
International buyers are responsible for any customs, taxes, and related import fees. Please note that we are unable to accomodate requests to misrepresent, misdeclare, or otherwise falsify customs documents when shipping internationally. We appreciate your understanding.
We accept all major credit cards, Paypal, Venmo, check, money order, and bank wire. We are happy to bill institutional buyers' needs. Sales tax will be added to applicable purchases. Items subject to prior sale.
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with your purchase, please contact us. We prioritize our long-term relationships far above any individual purchase, and we want you to love your item as much as we loved cataloguing it.




