Patrick O’Brian: A Life Revealed

First US edition, first printing.  xvii, 398pp, with a central section of black and white plate illustrations.  Quarter bound in brown cloth over tan paper-covered boards, with gilt-stamped lettering on the spine.  8vo.  A little rubbed and rounded on corners and spine ends.  Neat gift inscription inked on the front free endpaper else volume neat, clean, bright and tight.  In its original glossy, illustrated dust wrapper, not price clipped,  little bumped on extreme edges.  

Patrick O’Brian (1914-2000) was a novelist and translator, best remembered as the creator of the 20 novel Aubrey-Maturin series set during the Napoleonic Wars.  Although his early works attracted some critical acclaim, commercial success came later in his career, and indeed details of early life, first marriage and war time activities remain both murky and contested.  In this full length biography, King argues that O’Brian was indeed involved in intelligence operations during the second world war – a fact contested by the author’s stepson, Nicholas Tolstoy.