Agatha Christie

CHRISTIE, Agatha (1890-1976). One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. London: for The Crime Club by Collins, 1940.

Presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed by the author to her secretary, amanuensis and close friend Charlotte 'Carlo' Fisher: 'With love from Missus'. Fisher called her employer Agatha Christie 'Missus', which became a term of endearment.

'Nursery rhymes frequently proved a source of inspiration to Agatha Christie. Among later titles which derive from nursery rhymes are One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Five Little Pigs ("This little piggy went to market…"), Three Blind Mice, A Pocketful of Rye and Hickory, Dickory, Dock, and in several of these novels the murderer, too, seems to have been inspired by the old rhymes. But nowhere is a nursery rhyme put to more brilliant use than in this book' (C. Osborne, The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, 1999, p. 170). Hubin p. 80.

Octavo. 3 pages of publisher’s advertisements at end. Original orange cloth, spine lettered in black (short closed tear to half-title, spine sunned and stained, corners bumped, top edges of boards dust-stained, faint spotting to edge, two very small watermarks to head of upper cover); original pictorial dust-jacket supplied from another copy (chipped at spine and fold ends, lower panel rather marked). Provenance: Charlotte 'Carlo' Fisher (1895-1976, secretary, amanuensis and close friend of Agatha Christie; presentation inscription by the author on front free endpaper, and with Fisher’s posthumous book label).

Please note that this is an historical artefact. Some of its language and terminology, which reflects the context and culture of the time of its creation, is now considered outdated and culturally offensive; its contents may be at odds with contemporary views. One Two Buckle My Shoe is offered with the original dust-jacket which advertises another work by the same author using its original title containing a racial slur, which is now entitled And Then There Were None. The dust-jacket is viewable on application to the department.