Oppenheim, E. Phillips.

Barzun (James) and Taylor (Wendell Hertig) A Catalogue of Crime, New York, Harper and Row, 1971
Hayne (Barrie) entry in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Second Edition, St James' Press, 1985, pp.686-89
Standish (Robert) The Prince of Storytellers, Davies, 1957
Steinbrunner (Chris) and Penzler (Otto) Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, Routledge and Kegan paul, 1976
Symons (Julian) Bloody Murder, Faber,1972, pp.205-06

first American edition; The Curious Quest. Boston, Little Brown, 1919, first edition; The Box with Broken Seals. Boston, Little Brown, 1919, first American edition; The Wicked Marquis. Boston, Little Brown, 1919, first American edition; Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat. Hodder and Stoughton, 1920, first edition; Aaron Rod. Diviner. Hodder and Stoughton, 1920, first edition; The Honourable Algernon Knox, Detective. Hodder and Stoughton, 1920, first edition [Barzun & Taylor 2688]; The Devil's Paw. Boston, Little Brown, 1920, first edition; The Great Impersonation. Boston, Little Brown, 1920, first edition [Barzun & Taylor 1670]; Jacob's Ladder. Boston, Little Brown, 1921, first edition; The Profiteers. Boston, Little Brown, 1921, first edition; Nobody's Man. Boston, Little Brown, 1921, first edition; The Mystery Road. Boston, Little Brown, 1923, first edition; [as Anthony Partridge:] The Ghosts of Society. Hodder and Stoughton, 1906, first edition; The Kingdom of Earth. Boston: Little Brown, 1909, reprint; Passers-By. Boston, Little Brown, 1910, reprint; The Golden Web. Boston, Little Brown, 1910, first edition; The Court of St. Simon. Boston, Little Brown, 1912, first edition; all 8vo, occasional browning in most volumes, a few plates loose, spine becoming loose in a couple of instances; together with 19 books by other writers inscribed to Winfred Tolton by Oppenheim and members of the Duckworth publishing family, a number of photographs of the author and a pair of cartoons signed by Oppenheim

E(dward). Phillips Oppenheim (1866 - 1946) was known as the "Prince of Storytellers" and was certainly prodigious in his literary output, producing 116 novels and 39 short story collections. During the First World War he worked alongside John Buchan at the Ministry of Information. He lived an exotic lifestyle on the Riviera, which became the setting for many of his tales. He would dictate his stories at any time and place, and leave the editing of them to his secretary. This aspect of Oppenheim is humorously referred to in the cartoon included in this lot depicting him dictating his latest work to his secretary whilst on the golf links.Oppenheim's thrillers, featuring heroes who would often be living a Scarlet Pimpernel style double life, were incredibly popular, particularly in America where in the1920s an individual book could earn Oppenheim as much as $22000.

Oppenheim's most famous book is The Great Impersonation. Sir Everard Dominey, an English aristocrat, attempts to prevent his double, a German agent, from assuming his identity in the days leading up to the outbreak of the Great War. The story was filmed thrice with James Kirkwood (1921), Edmund Lowe (1935) and Ralph Bellamy (1942) as Dominey.

This particular collection of Oppenheim's work is enhanced by the presence of warm inscriptions inside each volume to his long-time secretary Winifred Tolton (or "Tolly" as she is affectionately known). Their relationship was evidently a warm one. One of the dedications is to "Winifred. The most faithful, beautiful, delightful, charming, wonderful, marvellous secretary in the world with love". Another is written as a mock school award "Tolly. First prize for good conduct. E. Phillips Oppenheim. HM". The inscriptions also reveal Winifred Tolton to have been the inspiration for a number of Oppenheim's characters, including "Winifred Rowan" in The Golden Web and "Julia" in A People's Man.