Garden Clubs and Spades

NY: Dutton, 1941. Sixth Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/VG+. Small octavo, publishers green cloth in slightly soiled pictorial dustjacket. A collection of garden cartoons from The New Yorker's Hokinson. Presentation copy from her to multiple Tony-award winner Hugh Wheeler (Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music) who, with the nom de plume Patrick Quentin, wrote nearly a hundred murder mysteries. Inscribed to Hugh and his long-time companion Rick (lnu) "For Rickie and Hugh, here is a frail little volume to read when you weary of murdering people. Only I hope you don't stop doing it. Helen E. H." Signed copies by Hokinson (who died in a plane crash in Washington DC in the early 1950s) are rare and the inscription, referring to Wheeler's work as murder mystery writer Patrick Quentin, uniquely whimsical.