…his thick mobile upper lip, split in two and always twitching, with a half-cynical and half-deprecating curl; a fringe of long lashes shading eyes which even the most critical must admit are large and soft and beautiful- a beauty which forms an appealing figure to an otherwise uncouth appearance…
-The Camel, 1894, Major Arthur Glyn Leonard (1855-1939)
A First Edition of this book, offered at Bonhams New York in October 2019, described in the catalogue as “an obscure work…rubbed, slightly shaken”, must have made quite a stir in the sales room that day. Did it sell over its high estimate of $1,500? Sadly, no, it failed to sell at all, much to the chagrin of its subject, “undoubtedly liable to periodical outbursts of passion or fits of temporary insanity”, as the Major put it.