Physical description

To You Mr Chips
Author: James Hilton
Publisher: Hodder Stoughton
Date: 1938-1940s
Further Information: Half-cloth" binding: black spine panel with orange cloth boards this matches the style used across various printings of the book, not just the first. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on spine with typed text PAT FIC HIL
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

To You, Mr Chips is not a novel in its own right but a collection of short stories plus an autobiographical essay, published as a follow-up to Hilton's phenomenally successful 1934 novella Goodbye, Mr Chips. The collection comprises short stories mainly about Mr Chips, alongside an autobiographical essay on education, and was noted at the time to be wildly popular with Hilton's readers. The book begins as autobiography before shifting into Hilton's vision of a better society, developed through a more detailed portrait of Chips and his gentle influence on generations of schoolchildren. It contains stories such as 'A Chapter of Autobiography', 'Gerald and the Candidate', 'Young Waveney', 'Mr Chips Takes a Risk', 'Mr Chips Meets a Sinner', 'Mr Chips Meets a Star', and 'Merry Christmas, Mr Chips'. Library cataloguing confirms the physical description of the true first edition: 244 pages with illustrations, published in London by Hodder & Stoughton in 1938, with illustrated lining papers, and the note 'First printed June 1938'.