Description
The first edition, first impression of Lost Horizon by James Hilton, winner of the Hawthornden Prize in 1934.
Octavo, [4], 281pp, [2pp ads]. Publisher’s green cloth, title stamped in gilt on the spine. The first impression, with no additional printings noted on the copyright page. Light dust along top edge of text block, internally clean. Front hinge showing some wear, an otherwise fine copy. Lacking the publisher’s scarce dust jacket.
(Hammond, 73-81)
A scarce first impression.
Lost Horizon added the word “Shangri-La” the English lexicon, a secluded Himalayan utopia, a synonym for an earthly paradise. Lost Horizon was not an immediate bestseller. The novel went largely unnoticed by the public until it won the Hawthornden Prize in 1934, and after the publication of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
