Mervyn Peake — Letters from a Lost Uncle

London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1948. First edition. Cloth. The first edition of this eccentric Arctic adventure, complete with the original unclipped dust wrapper and illustrated throughout in Peake's unmistakable style. In the publisher's original pictorial cloth binding.  Complete with the original unclipped dust wrapper.  The first edition was printed on war-time paper, the quality of which Peake complained about upon its publication, leading to the work's withdrawal until it was reissued in 1976. Illustrated throughout by Peake, with the text presented in facsimile typescript alongside his characteristically eccentric pencil drawings. With three pages incorporating areas printed in red, cleverly designed to imitate spills.  An inventive children's adventure told through the correspondence of the unnamed "Lost Uncle", an explorer with a spike in place of one leg, travelling through the polar regions in search of the elusive White Lion.  Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) was an English novelist, poet and artist, best known for his Gormenghast sequence.    In the publisher's original cloth binding. Externally, lovely. One or two faint spots with very minor offsetting to endpapers. The slightest trace of shelf wear to extremities. Dust wrapper, excellent. Very slight sunning and rubbing to spine. Light soiling and browning to perimeters. Minor edge wear to extremities, more so to spine ends. Internally, firmly bound. Pages bright and clean. Fine . Ill.: Mervyn Peake. Fine/Near Fine.