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1856 · réf. 4487 — London: J&C Brown & Co. n.d. 1856 1856. 8vo. 158x95mm. pp. pp. iv 2 9-309 1bl. Frontispiece some offsetting from frontispiece onto the title page opposite. This copy is undated but has the same title and imprint as the dated first edition of 1856 so we have assumed that it is from that year. Russell's works were often republished but with different titles which is not the case here. Bound with and after BELL Robert The Ladder of Gold. An English Story London:G. Routledge & Co. 1858. vi 7-440. Navy blue half calf marbled paper covered boards spine decorated in blind and with two tan morocco labels lettered in gilt. Rubbing to edges and slight bumping and creasing to corners. All edges marbled. Front pastedown has Ex Libris of C. Villiers Downes. Apsley House Beds. Robert Bell 1800-67 was a prolific man of letters best known for his journalism and his never completed annotated edition of the English poets. The Ladder of Gold was one of two novels. But of the two works bound together here it is the second which is of greater interest hence our cataloguing it as the principal work. William Russell 1806-1876 was one of the first writers to concentrate on detective stories in particular police memoirs. He began by contributing stories to magazines ten of which were published in pirated form in America in 1852 and 1853. These together with another two were then published legitimately in England in 1856. This is the present collection. The stories are short punchy realistic and would have seemed quite revolutionary at the time. Indeed he is sometimes cited as an influence on the grittier American twentieth century crime writers. London: J&C Brown & Co. n.d. [1856] hardcover