The First Saint Omnibus. An Anthology of Saintly Adventures - Leslie Charteris 1939 - Hodder &, London - First Edition of this Collection A finely bound selection of thirteen short stories featuring 'The Robin Hood of Modern Crime'.

Simon Templar, ‘The Saint’, ‘is a rambunctious adventurer who believes in old-fashioned romantic ideals, alter-ego perhaps of his Singaporean born creator Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin Charteris. Templar is prepared to lay down his life for these ideals, using considerable wit and intelligence, the Saint has a preference for avenging innocent victims.
  Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin’s [1907-93] father was Dr. Suat Chuan Yin, a wealthy Chinese surgeon, and his mother Lydia Florence Bowyer, was of English descent. When his parents separated, Charteris followed his mother to England, where he was educated at private school and then studied law at Cambridge in 1926. He abandoned his studies shortly afterwards due to the success in 1927 of ‘X Esquire’ and the Simon Templar adventure, ‘Meet the Tiger’. Charteris published his early stories under the name Leslie C. Bowyer, but at the age of twenty, he changed his name to Leslie Charteris, in honour, as it is claimed to Colonel Francis Charteris (1675-1732), a professional gambler, notorious rake and founder of the Hellfire Club.

Whilst writing he scraped a living in various ways, working as a merchant seaman; a gold prospector, tin miner, and pearl fisherman, all in Malaysia; touring Britain with a carnival; driving a bus; he was a bartender; and a professional bridge player in a London club.

In 1932 Charteris moved to Hollywood, working as a scriptwriter. ‘
The Saint in New York’ (1935) which he actually wrote in England, made him an international celebrity. Charteris was excluded from permanent residency in the United States because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law which prohibited immigration for persons of "50% or greater" Oriental blood. Eventually, an act of Congress personally granted his daughter and him the right of permanent residence in the United States, with eligibility for naturalization, which he later completed in 1946, as did Simon Templar. Charteris later returned to England with his fourth wife, and remained for the rest of his life.

References: Herbert,
The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing, 62, 394. Britannica. www.saint.org. Wiki. The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction. Petri Liukkonen & Ari Pesonen.

Thick octavo (binding size 18.6x13.5cm), pp. [2] xii 1008 [4].
  Elegantly bound in three-quarter burgundy oasis morocco over matching cloth, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with traditional raised bands, top edge gilt, publisher's original titled upper cloth panel bound in at rear.   Condition: Fine but for faint mark to the corner of text block, in fine binding.   Ref: 111659   Price: HK$ 4,000