God Bless You, Mrs. Rosewater

This was, apparently, the best-selling novel of 1936.  The funny thing is that, although in those days nobody thought it was possible, the current thinking is that there may actually have been female gladiators.  Who knew?

The beat-up copy here, which lived on a shelf at Grandma's beach house and was abused by decades' worth of houseguests, dates from the mid-40s.

Eunice Rosewater was a New England novelist, a chess champion, and married to a senator.  Her prose style has been described, charitably, as "Lyttonesque."

We've heard that there was a paperback re-issue in the early 60s, which didn't sell.  Copies are said to be very, very rare.

In completely unrelated news, they got Suspect #2.