(3) Books by Important Scottish, Irish, and Welsh Authors (1908-1927).
Size: (tallest) 10 X 7 1/2 X 1/8 in.
This lot consists of three books: one by Kenneth Grahame, the second by James Stephens, and the last by Rhys Davies.
Kenneth Grahame (1859 - 1932) was a Scottish novelist from Edinburgh and he wrote Wind in the Willows, one of the most popular children's books of all time, and the book he wrote here is The Golden Age, a broad collection of short stories for children. The book is one-quarter bound in vellum, with gilt lettering on a black label and a gilt-decorated spine, green cloth boards, blank endpapers, an illustrated frontis, the book is undated, but was published in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York circa 1908, according to WorldCat, it has 287 pages of text and book ads for Thomas Nelson after the last page of text, and the top edge is gilt. The book measures 6 5/16 x 4 1/4 inches wide and is in very good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text, and the only blemish is a penciled note on the front flyleaf.
The James Stephens book is The Crock of Gold, first published in 1912, then issued in 1922 with fanciful drawings by American artist Wilfred Jones, which is the novel here. Stephens (1880 - 1950) was an Irish novelist and poet, and the book is a novel with a mix of philosophy, Irish folklore, and a quest to find the most beautiful woman in the world. The book has gilt lettering and gilt designs on the spine, an illustration of a leprechaun handling a crock of gold on the front cover, decorated endpapers, the half-title and title page, which says the book was published in New York by MacMlllan in 1922, there are 298 pages of text, and this is the first American edition and first illustrated edition of the book. The book measures 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches wide and is in very good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text, with light bumps at the heel and crown and at two tips.
The Rhys Davies book is Aaron, a limited and numbered first edition signed by Davies on the limitation page. It is number 72 of only 100 copies ever printed, and it was published by E Archer in London in October 1927. Davies (1901 - 1978) was a prolific Welsh novelist and short story writer, his stories are usually set in Wales, and he was friends with D H Lawrence; he even helped Lawrence smuggle a manuscript into Britain and get it published for Lawrence. The book here is in the original red wrapps, with a paper label on the cover, it is stapled, as called for, the full text only runs from page 3 to page 11, and it is a story of a deformed boy who wants to be accepted and find love, but is always ridiculed and rejected by people. He meets a girl he likes and wants to go out with her, she reluctantly says yes, but teases him and leads him on - she is willing to go out with him and kiss him only if he buys her a necklace. She adds insult to injury by telling her friends about their “meeting to be”, and when the two get together, the friends spring out from behind a fence, attack him and pull his pants down, just humiliating him to the point of rage: his legs are emaciated - that is his deformity. He seems to forgive her and buys her the necklace anyway, and when he puts it around her neck, he strikes her with a lump of coal and kills her, he exalts in his fury, takes her clothes off and just sits and stares at her, with “all the pain of his life in his eyes”. It is a story of pain and rejection and hurt, with a tragic ending, and it bespeaks of people’s cruelty to each other. The book measures 10 x 7 1/2 inches wide and is in good condition, with clean pages and text. The covers are lightly soiled, with creases at the tips, there’s a penciled note on the front flyleaf, one staple is loose, and it is hard to find this book anywhere, let alone find out what it’s about unless you read it. (We couldn’t find descriptions of the story anywhere.)
