Description

Published 1938: First Edition / Hardcover / Very Good Condition / Illustrated throughout

Original tan decorated cloth with titles on the cover and spine. 198 + very clean and bright pages, mild speckled foxing on the endpapers and edges. Boards are rubbed and faded with time and bumped on the corners and spine ends consistent with age but remain firm and intact. A scarce original first edition. (HQ251)

Postage €6.95 including additional books ordered.
An Post prepaid postage envelopes within the Republic of Ireland, with no weight restrictions from €6.95.

An autobiography, in which the artist discusses his works for children in some detail.

William Heath Robinson (31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944) cartoonist illustrator and artist, best known for drawings of whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives.

In the UK, the term "Heath Robinson contraption" gained dictionary recognition around 1912. It became part of popular language during the 1914–1918 First world War as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance and used in relation to temporary fixes using ingenuity and whatever is to hand, often string and tape, or unlikely cannibalisations.

One of the automatic analysis machines built for Bletchley Park during the Second World War to assist in the decryption of German message traffic was named 'Heath Robinson' in his honour. It was a direct predecessor to the Colossus the world's first programmable digital electronic computer. [Google Books]