Paradise (Prisoners of Hope)

London: The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd.. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. [1928]. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, binding intact; the jacket shows a little wear and some very shallow chipping along the top edge, with a tiny tear and some very slight paper loss at the upper right corner of the front panel, but is still attractive, with colorized illustrations from the movie on both the front and rear panels]. (Readers Library, no. 178) Series Small-format British "photoplay edition" (about the size of a modern-day mass-market paperback). Not a novelization but rather a reprint of the original 1924 novel (entitled "Prisoners of Hope" in the U.K.) on which the American film PARADISE was based. A 1926 release from First National Pictures, it was directed by Irvin Willat and starred Milton Sills and Betty Bronson. The film itself is discussed only perfunctorily in the 2-page "Editor's Note," and (unlike the standard American format for photoplay editions) there are no photographic stills from the movie included in the book. This copy (especially the jacket) is in much nicer condition than books in the cheaply-produced Readers Library series are usually in. (NOTE that this has been tagged as no. 178 in the series, but that this number does not appear anywhere on the book or jacket; it was obtained from the Arnie Davis bibliography of photoplay editions.) .