Biggles and The Black Raider

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953. First edition. Cloth. Very Good/Very Good. 7.5" by 5". Leslie Stead. A smart first edition of this brightly illustrated Biggles adventure from Captain W. E. Johns. First edition, first impression. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece and eight colour plates. Collated complete. The forty-fourth book in the Biggles series. Set in Central Africa, Biggles is sent on an urgent assignment to search for the elusive black elephant. Written by William Earl Johns, an English First World War pilot and writer of adventure stories, who wrote under the pen name Capt. W. E. Johns. He is best known for creating the fictional air-adventurer Biggles. Illustrated by Leslie Stead, a British artist and illustrator who worked on many of the books in this series. In the original red cloth binding. Externally, smart with minor rubbing and light bumping to the extremities. Original unclipped dust wrapper is also smart with light wear and minor chipping to the extremities. Minor sunning with the odd small spot to the panels. Minor loss to the head and tail of the spine with the odd small closed tear. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with the odd spot and light age toning to the endpapers. Very Good