Philo Gubb. Correspondence-School Detective - Ellis Parker Butler 1918 - Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York - First Edition A near fine first edition, in the original pictorial cloth, and illustrated with twenty full page black and white plates.

A small town good-natured wallpaper hanger, with a fascination for Sherlock Holmes, Philo Gubb’s office also contains a framed diploma from the Rising Sun Detective Agency’s Correspondence School.

Gubb commits a slight case of murder on the King’s English every time he talks, but manages to solve crimes despite his talent for interpreting clues incorrectly and his flair for sporting mail-order disguises that inevitably fail to mask his purposes. A precursor to Inspector Clouseau perhaps...

‘Detecktating is my aim and my profession.’
  Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1931) was a prolific part-time writer for pulp fiction magazines who became famous for his brilliant creation Philo Gubb, the good-natured and persistent would-be detective.

Reference: Queen's Quorum 61. Herbert, OCCMW 331. Not in Haycraft, Symons, Reilly, Bates.

Octavo (book size 19.5 x 13.8 cm) pp. [8] 353 [3]. In publisher’s yellow cloth, lettered and decorated in black to spine, lettered and illustrated inblack reflecting frontispiece.
  Condition: Near fine, light wear to corners, slightly heavier to spine ends, spin with minor sunning and soiling.   Ref: 109363   Price: HK$ 2,200