A HERMIT DISCLOSED

Raleigh Trevelyan

Published by Longmans, London, 1960

About this Item

By the author of The Fortress.***Book Society Alternative Choice.***Jacket drawing by Charles Stewart.***Thirteen black and white illustrations including frontispiece.***Endpaper maps and maps on pages 150 and 217 by Charles Green.***Very good indeed in orange cloth-covered boards. Gilt titles to spine. Spine tight. No inscriptions. Bottom corners of boards very slightly bumped. Head and tail of spine slightly bruised. Fore-edge of text-block slightly foxed, not affecting interior pages. In a very good indeed colour illustrated dustwrapper which has not been price-clipped, showing original publisher's price of 30s net, which has been neatly crossed out in pencil. Dustwrapper is slightly rubbed and creased at edges, corners and head and tail of spine. Back panel of dustwrapper slightly discoloured (being white background).***308 pages.***220 mm x 148 mm.***'Jimmy Mason lived for many years as a hermit on the outskirts of the Essex village of Great Canfield until he was found dead in his hovel on January 17th, 1942. For about thirty-five years he had been seen by virtually no one except his brother Tommy who had been his source of provisions and his one link with mankind; he and Tommy used to see each other about once every six months.--- The starting point for this minute and fascinating revelation of a hermit's life and the actuality of the lives of members of a poor, rustic, primitive community is the diary Jimmy Mason kept, before he went to the hut, from 1895-1897. This diary is a peep-hole at the humblest level and is all the more interesting because of its unconscious objectivity; having never really been of the world, Jimmy was forced to make deductions from what he saw, without experience to guide him. ---Raleigh Trevelyan himself has lived in Great Canfield. It was there he came upon the diary which so aroused his curiosity that he eventually returned to the village bent on finding out the whole truth about the life and death of Jimmy Mason. The quest began to take on the proportions of an obsession; the investigation spread wider and deeper, into the maze of London's East End; at the same time as the story itself with hints of miracles, poisons, murder and unrequited passion - unfolded there was revealed also a portrait, minutely detailed, of life in a corner of an obscure, yet in some way typical, English village of the late nineteenth century - its people, their daily lives, their loves and hates, their taboos and most secret ways and manners. To discover the truth about a hermit who scarcely saw a human being for the last thirty-five years of his life it was necessary to interview over than two hundred people.' (Quote from inside front and back of wrapper blurb)***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 1779

Bibliographic Details

Title: A HERMIT DISCLOSED

Publisher: Longmans, London

Publication Date: 1960

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Edition: First Edition