All’s Well

[1890] First edition, first printing. 160pp, [2]. With a tissue-guarded frontispiece and three further plate illustrations. In a later binding; quarter bound in leather over patterned-paper boards, with replacement endpapers and inserted leaves; nice if somewhat imperfect rebinding. 12mo. Boards very slightly rubbed on corners, patina of wear on spine. Very slightly cocked. A couple of small marks on title page, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight. This juvenile adventure story of the late 19th century has been attributed by some to Frances Parkinson Keyes, but we think that attribution is flawed first, because the novel was published in 1890, when Keyes would have been only five years old; and it was published in the UK when Keyes was an American writer. The volume does not appear in standard Keyes bibliographies. The confusion likely arises because Keyes did write a novel with the title Honor Bright. The more likely author is the Sue Chestnut Perkins, although this is also a dubious attribution. Interesting and hard to find volume.