"The Prodigal Judge", by Vaughan Kester, illustrated by M. Leone Bracker, published by Bobbs-Merrill Company in 1911, unstated first edition; illustrated.

Hard boards, original publisher's cloth, gold decorated spine and front board [some shelf wear, white letters on spine]; 5.1/2" x 7.1/2"; library and "withdrawn" stamps inside front cover and page #33, library stamp on the title page; 448 pages [a few page corner folds and several pages with bumped bottom corner, untrimmed page edges, frontispiece and six b/w plates on glossy paper, good+ condition.

Kester wrote the novel while living at Gunston Hall in Virginia. A best-seller, it was the second-best selling fiction book in the United States in 1911. Kester died in July 1911, but not before enjoying the knowledge his book had reached the top of the bestseller lists.

To promote the book, publisher Bobbs-Merrill Company held a "book review contest", with prizes of $250, $150, and $100 for the first through third best reviews published in the first month of the book's release, judged by a panel consisting of Yale University professor William Lyon Phelps, magazine editor John Sanborn Phillips, and writer William Allen White. Third place went to H.L. Mencken.

"The Prodigal Judge" was staged at the Bronx Opera House in December 1913 with George Fawcett playing the judge. It was also made into a silent film directed by Edward Jose, starring Jean Paige and Macklyn Arbuckle (as the judge), released in 1922.

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