Contributor Richards Grant 1872 (1 results)

xi, [1], 126 pp. Richards' TLs, on his 8, St Martin's Street letterhead, laid-in, dated May 30th, 1924. Color frontis, on coated paper, by Robert E. Locher. Tissue guard present. Crown 8vo. 7-1/2" x 5" Laid in to this copy is a letter from the publisher Grant Richards, in London, to Marcella Burns Hahner. Hahner, known as 'the Czarina', was head of the Chicago Marshall Field book department. She apparently had a very strong personality and was known to be rather tyrannical. The letter refers to the upcoming sale of author H.G. Hibbert's book collection, and also requests that Mrs. Hahner find him a copy of this Firbank novel, so this presumably Richard's copy, though we are unable to trace an unbroken provenance. Firbank was an innovative English novelist. Openly gay, his novels were partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde. They consist largely of dialogue, with references to religion, social-climbing, and sexuality. This novel was published in Britain as Sorrow in Sunlight and renamed for this American edition. It is set in a fictional Caribbean republic where a socially ambitious Black family move from their rural home to the capital, with the story chronicholing their efforts to 'get into society'. Richards "was a British publisher and writer. After creating his own publishing firm at the age of just 24 years old, he launched The World's Classics series (still published by Oxford University Press as Oxford World's Classics) and published writers such as George Bernard Shaw, A. E. Housman, Samuel Butler, Frederick Rolfe and James Joyce. He made 'a significant impact on the publishing business of the early twentieth century'". [Wiki] This Firbank's first book publication in the US. VG+ (bookplate of "William H. Sahud"/pencil pos dated "March 18 '24)/VG (extremity wear & soiling). Black cloth binding lettered in gilt. Black topstain. White dust jacket with front panel graphic duplicating the frontis 1st US edition (Benkovitz A10). Benkovitz quotes van Vechten implying a print run of 300 cc.