The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist

511 pp. Burgundy cloth, gilt titles, blind-stamped borders. A Victorian novel, and the namesake of British-born American ventriloquist (real name Jack Riley) known for his 3000-year history of the art entitled I Can See Your Lips Moving: The History and Art of Ventriloquism. His career lasted five decades, and in the late '90s and early 2000s he organized annual ventriloquist conventions in Las Vegas as director of the International Ventriloquist Association. Cockton's work was originally published serially in 1839-40, and at the time approached the same popularity as Charles Dickens's works.