The Sibyl of the North: The Tale of Christina, Queen of Sweden [with movie tie-in dust jacket]

Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1931. Unstated edition. Hardcover. [nice clean book with only light wear at the extremities; in a Grosset & Dunlap dust jacket (see Notes) with a bit of chipping along the top edge]. (B&W plates) A biography of the 17th-century Swedish monarch, published earlier the same year in England by Cassell & Company Ltd. This copy still bears the Houghton Mifflin imprint on the title page and the spine, but the dust jacket is the Grosset & Dunlap version, a tie-in with the 1933 MGM film QUEEN CHRISTINA, with a beautiful painting of Greta Garbo on the front panel. Whether that makes it technically a "photoplay edition" can be debated -- remove the jacket and there is no inkling of the movie anywhere to be seen -- but it's worth noting that this book was not actually credited as the source for the film, which was cited as deriving from an "original story by Salka Viertel and Margaret P. Levino"; however, it obviously was used for background material, as a synopsis of the book is contained in the MGM script file at the Margaret Herrick Library. (It's also notable that the volume's size and heft set it apart from the usual G&D movie tie-ins, which were smaller and more cheaply manufactured, and would cause little damage if dropped on your toe; I wouldn't recommend dropping this one, though.) .