Over the Border

New York/London: Harper & Brothers. Very Good-. 1917. Early printing (G-R). Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [moderately shelfworn, binding intact, front cover and spine gilt lettering rubbed and dulled, slight bumping/fraying at the tips; contains some interesting additions and annotations, discussed in the Notes]. Western adventure novel set in Northern Mexico, involving the exploits of a trio of hard-bitten outlaws -- "The Three Bad Men of Las Bocas," as they are dubbed at the outset of the story. The British-born author (1867-1919), whose last published book this was, had relocated from England to Canada in 1886 and subsequently to Oakland, California, in 1895; previously a soldier, farmer, and working man, he began his writing career around 1901, and his stories soon began appearing regularly in such publications as Munsey's Magazine and Harper's Monthly; his first book, "The Probationer, and Other Stories," was published in 1905. During his time in Oakland, he became friendly with a number of members of the Bay Area literary crowd, including Jack London (to whom "Over the Border" is dedicated) and poet George Sterling. He was regarded as something of an expert on Mexico, having made several trips to that country on assignment for Harper's and the Oakland Tribune, and at least one of his earlier novels also had a Mexican setting. During World War I he served as a war correspondent for the Tribune, but fell ill just after the Armistice with a stomach ailment (which turned out to be cancer), returned to the U.S., and died in New York in January 1919 at the age of just 52. This copy of the book has some added front matter that provides some provenance and suggests an interesting possibility. First, at the top of the front endpaper is a typewritten excerpt from a letter written by one George Broadhurst, presumably the English-born playwright and theatrical producer of that name (who was about the same age as Whitaker and was also resident in California in the last years of his life), stating this opinion: "I should think that Mrs Whitaker would be able to dispose of the picture rights to this book for a very substantial sum, as, in my opinion it would make a splendid screen play." (This is identified as an "excerpt from letter written by the above to Harper and Bros.") Below that are two handwritten notes: (in ink) "Property of Mrs. Herman Whitaker / 1457 Ogden Drive - Hollywood / Phone 579-085"; and (in pencil) "Kindly be careful of this copy as it was the only one obtainable." Add to this the presence, on a couple pages of the preliminaries, of the stamp of "Al Cohn, 224 Markham Building, Hollywood, California," and a picture emerges of a grieving widow (she would have been the second Mrs. Whitaker, the author's first wife having died in 1905) striving to peddle her recently-deceased husband's works -- possibly her best assets -- to the movies. (This was not without precedent, as Whitaker's 1909 novel "The Planter" had been made into a silent film of that name by the Mutual Film Company in 1917, and "Over the Border" itself.) And -- lo and behold! -- George Broadhurst was right: this novel *was* eventually sold to Hollywood and it served as the basis for one of director John Ford's best silent features, THREE BAD MEN (1926), and an early talkie remake, NOT EXACTLY GENTLEMEN (1931). I like to think that it was this very copy -- perhaps via the energetic efforts of agent Al Cohn -- that led to the movie sale, and that the proceeds therefrom helped to sustain the widow Whitaker in her later years. (It might be further noted that this book, although not marked as such, was part of the collection of MGM writer/producer Carey Wilson, which was acquired by ReadInk several years ago -- although this may be a meaningless connection, since both film versions were produced by the Fox Film Corporation.) (Also NOTE that the book was published in May 1917, but that the printing code in this copy (G-R) indicates a July 1917 printing.) .