FREEMAN, R. Austin. The Shadow of the Wolf. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [1925.] First edition, with 2 tipped-in a.l.s.', 8vo (183 x 120mm.) (Spotting to half-title and last leaves, 'For Review' stamped to half-title.) Original red cloth (fading and a nick to spine panel). Note: two closely-written letters, both 2pp., written in the same year of the book's publication to Charles Harry Clinton Pirie-Gordon, naval intelligence officer and genealogist. Freeman is warmly appreciative of Pirie-Gordon's assistance 'for the very useful bit of information… I am always grateful for authentic facts as my original stock is getting considerably reduced'. Such material, he implies, is crucial to his creativity: 'the confounded short stories that I have to pour out to boil the pot have consumed a terrible amount of material'. He then goes on to mention an 'ingenious Turk' whose 'plan of speeding up the ship by feeding prisoners into the furnace, if considered in connection with coal strikes & the undue fertility of the Great Unfit, seems to suggest a form of procedure which would be economical in several directions.' Provenance: Charles Harry Clinton Pirie-Gordon (recipient of the author's letters).