NICHOLS, Beverley ~ Women and Children Last
First edition, Jonathan Cape, London: 1931
8vo., red-orange cloth with painted black label gilt to spine; publisher’s device embossed in blind to lower board; in the original unclipped dustwrapper (7s. 6d. net); THE BOOK with light spotting to the prelims and edges; faint offsetting to endpapers; some scratches to front endpapers; else a very good copy; the DUSTWRAPPER also very good, some even shelf wear and darkening, most so to the spine; rubbed along spine folds; with some light nicking to the upper edge. Provenance: Ex Libris of Colin Crole to the front free endpaper. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition. A collection of sketches from the author of ‘Down the Garden Path’, divided into four parts (‘More or Less Fiction’, ‘Journalese’, ‘Mainly about Women’ and ‘Children’s Corner’),where women form the butt of his wit. The title of the collection was inspired by a particular vehement letter received by him from a group of girls who wrote: “You are a bum, and would probably let a woman drown if you were on a ship and it was going down”. In the controversial Forward, he presses his response: “women, if they claim equal rights with men, must also claim equal responsibilities”, he writes. “Women should join their countries' armies in war-time, and fight and be killed”. “If women insist upon demanding equality”, he concludes, “they should have equality of criticism, and in this book they get it”. Beverley Nichols is perhaps best remembered today for his contributions to Woman's Own magazine (1946–1967).
BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good
£225