FLY-FISHER’S PIE

Joscelyn ‘Jos’  Theodore Horsburgh LANE (1880-1954). Fly-Fisher’s Pie. London: Herbert Jenkins, [1956]. Octavo (8 ½ x 5 ½ inches). Pp. [1-]14-160. Plates, one illustration. Original red cloth, dust-jacket (damage to dust-jacket [see images]). First edition. [with:] the original typescript/manuscript of “Fly-Fisher’s Pie”, an earlier version with an alternative title “Flashlights on Fly-Fishing”, and two additional chapters which are not included in the published work. [U.K.: undated but 1956 and earlier]. 252 pages, a mixture of typescript, manuscript, mostly recto only, but occasionally on both sides of a sheet. Most of the leaves which are written/typed on one side have other work on the verso. [and:] 11 photographs (apparently the artwork for a number of the plates), 3 related negatives and a double-portrait photograph of the author and his wife Joan (to whom the book is dedicated). See Bonhams lot 960 ‘Angling Library of John Simpson, Part two’, 06/02/2005, a similar lot which sold for the equivalent of $570.

Make-up of the present manuscript/typescript:

Title, preface, etc.: 7 pages

Chapter I. Book Lore: 9 pages

Chapter II. Mostly About Trout: 22 pages

Chapter III. Aquarium for One: 20 pages

Chapter IV. Trout Rivers of India and Ceylon [not included in published work]: 32 pages

Chapter V. The Sea Trout, Rainbow and Grayling: 13 pages

Chapter VI. The Mahseer: 21 pages

Chapter VII. Flies Natural and Unnatural: 21 pages

Chapter VIII. Hours at the Vice.: 29 pages

Chapter IX. The Luck of the Draw [not included in published work]: 18 pages 

Chapter X. Weather Wisdom: 25 pages

Chapter XI. Precept and Hope: 22 pages

Chapter XII. Chasing Hope: 13 pages.         

The author was nothing if not thrifty: he typically re-uses paper from earlier literary projects. One such was preliminarily titled ‘Monte Carlo Madness. A book on Roulette and Roulette Systems.’  There is also a partial story (biographical?) describing hunting in India, as well as one or more partial fishing works.