THE SCARCE FIRST ISSUE, IN THE RARE DUSTWRAPPER, TOGETHER WITH CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS FROM THE TRIAL

HALL, Radclyffe ~ The Well of Loneliness. [together with] BRITTEN, Vera ~ Radclyffe Hall. A Case of Obscenity?

FIRST UK PRINTING. Jonathan Cape, London: 1928. [and] FIRST UK PRINTING. Femina Books Ltd., London: 1968.

Large 8vo., black publisher's cloth, lettered in gilt to spine; upper edge stained black, else untrimmed; together in the publisher's printed dustwrapper, correctly priced 15s. net to front flap; THE BOOK very good, spine ends a little bumped and rubbed with a couple of small white marks; some slight spotting and offsetting internally, mostly affecting the prelims and outer edges of the text block, the odd spot sometimes extending onto pages; THE WRAPPER present, though in several pieces, with large tears and portions of loss, particularly to the spine, only half of which is present, with some loss of text to the upper portion; still, seldom found at all and scarce thus. The wrapper is contained in a removable Brodart archival cover. FIRST UK EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with the uncorrected 'whip' to line 13, page 50. This copy also includes an envelope, pasted to the front pastedown, which contains numerous contemporary press cuttings relating to the famous libel case and this title. [together with Britten's 'Case of Obscenity?': 8vo., burgundy publisher's boards, lettered and lined in silver to spine; together in the unclipped silver and red dustwrapper (priced 30/- net to front flap) designed by Leonora Box; containing several black and white photographs including a striking frontis portrait of Hall; THE BOOK a little bruised to spine tips, else fine; THE WRAPPER very good, with some creasing and rubbing to edges and some light scratches to the spine/lower panel; a few nicks to ends of spine and folds; one tiny hole touched up to spine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. FIRST UK EDITION, together with the publisher's bookmark. Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe-Hall was born in 1880, and had a controversial childhood. Abandoned by her father in 1882, she was left with her mother and new stepfather, both of whom she disliked, though she did inherit a large sum of money from her absent father, which she later used to forge a life for herself devoid of marriage or work. Self-identifying as a 'congenital invert', she later fell in love with the singer Mabel Batten, who encouraged her to publish some of her poetry. Hall was to also fall in love with Una Troubridge, Mabel's cousin, with whom she would have a relationship for the rest of her life. It was in 1926, after having published a number of poetry collections and several novels, that she began writing 'The Well of Loneliness', her most controversial work and the one for which she would be best remembered. Centring around Stephen Gordon, a masculine lesbian who bears a strong resemblance to the author herself, it was immediately subjected to an obscenity trial in the UK, despite it's lack of any truly sexually explicit content. Instigated in part by James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express (who wrote at the time that he "would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel", the result was a ruling that all published copies of the book should be immediately destroyed due to its defence (and indeed encouragement of) "unnatural practices between women". As is common with these sorts of trials, the ruling backfired, and 'The Well of Loneliness' became the best-known lesbian novel in English at the time, and was in some cases the first source of information about lesbianism that young people could access. It has also been noted as being the predecessor to the golden age of lesbian pulp fiction. In this, Hall succeeded in her goal to end public silence about homosexuality and bring about "more tolerant understanding". The second book in this collection discusses the famous trial, and is written by the suffragist, pacifist, and feminist Vera Brittain. Here, Brittain compares and contrasts the resulting obscenity trial with another that was, in the 1960s, at the forefront of public consciousness; that of Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'. Brittain had reviewed 'The Well of Loneliness' upon its initial release, was on the assembly of witnesses for the defence of the novel during the trial. Here, she writes in her introduction that "I am still impressed by its passionate honesty and the author's courage in presenting her case to a hostile and intolerant public". "...the public reaction to so-called obscenity [has] changed beyond recognition in the past forty years", she happily writes. Together, these two books provide great insight into one of the most controversial works of the 20th century. It is rare indeed to find the novel at all in its first edition form, and even more so with the dustwrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Fair
BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good