Scarce as the special edition

Joseph, Joseph (Brocard Sewell) ~ Montague Summers – A Memoir : One Of Only 15 Special Copies Printed On Pink Loan And Finely Bound

Cecil & Amelia Woolf, London : 1965

The First UK printing published by Cecil & Amelia Woolf, London in 1965. This is the special edition of only fifteen letter copies, lettered A to O, and printed on T.H. Saunders hand-made pink loan, and finely bound. This copy is letter 'I'. There was also a standard trade edition issued simultaneously in a limitation of 750 copies. The BOOK is in near Fine condition. Original green silk moire boards with the pink loan pages untrimmed. A tiny scratch (barely noticeable) to the front board. The green silk page marker is present but fading to the lower portion. Bookplate of David E. Wickham to the front pastedown. The morocco label with gilt titling has a tiny chip to one of its edges but not involving any lettering. Slight offsetting to the end papers and one tiny foxing spot to the lower page edge of a handful of pages. Striking B/W photo frontis of Montague Summers is present. Loosely inserted are some newspaper clippings of reviews of this title, and a prospectus for John Ardlard's 'Setback, Yeats and the Nineties'. This is a memoir of the clergyman and author Montague Summers, known for works on the occult such as 'The History of Witchcraft' and the first English translation of the 15th century witch-hunting manual 'Malleus Maleficarum'. Augustus Montague Summers was an English author, clergyman, and teacher. He wrote extensively on the occult and has been characterised as "arguably the most seminal twentieth-century purveyor of pop culture occultism. (From 'Decadent Diabolist to Roman Catholic Demonologist: Some Biographical Curiosities from Montague Summers' Black Folio'. Literature & Aesthetics. 30 (2): 1–37). Michael Seymour Gerveys Sewell usually now known by his religious name 'Brocard Sewell', was a British Carmelite friar, priest and literary figure. The book is housed in a green cloth slipcase, which is a very tight fit. I think as such, that it is likely that the book was not issued with a slipcase but this has been added at a later date. A very handsome production. Scarce.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine