COWARD, Noel; Lorn MACNAUGHAN [Illus.] ~ A Withered Nosegay
FIRST EDITION. Christophers, London: 1922
8vo., brown publisher’s cloth, lettered and lined in yellow to upper cover and spine; together in the yellow printed dustwrapper featuring an illustration by MacNaughtan to the upper panel, and publisher’s device to lower; featuring ten humorous portraits throughout; THE BOOK a very good copy, endpapers browned and offset (extending to prelims); a little bumped and rubbed at corners and spine tips, but else a clean example, the DUSTWRAPPER having done an excellent job of protecting the boards beneath, is good, however browned at folds, edges and backstrip, with some nicks and creases, one 2.5cm closed tear to the front panel; spine rather heavily chipped, spotted torn and split, with some damage to lettering, some rather crude internal tape repair. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition. An early work by Coward, which sees him at his most frivolous, stereotyping a number of characters including ‘Julie de Poopinac’, ‘Donna Isabella Angelica y Bananas’ and ‘Sophie, uncrowned Queen of Henry VIII’. The work reconstructs “the multi-coloured lives of those glorious, flamboyant figures who flaunted and hurtled their way across the pages of History”, Coward writes in his introduction.“Who are we to criticse these frail, lovely, yet withal earthly creatures” he continues, “who are we to condemn their occasionally slightly irritating behaviour - who are we, anyhow?” As one Goodreads reviewer writes, “the book is like listening to my uncle tell bad puns”. Seldom encountered with the dustwrapper.
BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Good
£395