Scarce in this condition

Trevelyan, Gertrude Eileen (Lady Margaret HALL) ~ Julia, Daughter of Claudius : The Newdigate Prize Poem, 1927

Basil Blackwell, Oxford: 1927

4to., blue paper-sewn wraps titled in black to upper cover; Ex Libris of Francesca Claremont/Frank Stoville Wright to the inside front cover; THE BOOK with covers creased and browned at edges, with small brown stain to upper cover (1cm in diameter) extending through to the majority of the pages; a couple of lighter spots to lower; split at head, slightly fragile but holding; a couple of additional marks and corner creases; good, still, and unusual to find at all. Sole UK printing. The Newdigate Prize was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger Newdigate, who sat in the House of Commons from 1742 to 1780. The stipulations for the award are as follows: "The length of the poem is not to exceed 300 lines. The metre is not restricted to heroic couplets, but dramatic form of composition is not allowed." The prize has succeeded in discovering many up and coming writers and poets, including amongst them John Ruskin, Oscar Wilde, John Buchan and John Addington Symonds, among many others. Gertrude Eileen Trevelyan was the first woman to be awarded the prize in 1927, following a rather staggering 107 other men before her. Born in 1903, she attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, from 1923 to 1927, where she graduated with a second-class degree. Julia, Daughter of Claudius is a 250-line poem in blank verse on the subject of a real-life excavation which took place along the Appian Way in 1485, and where the body of a perfectly preserved 15 year old girl was discovered. After graduating, Trevelyan went on to write a series of 8 novels, many published by Gollancz, on such diverse subjects as the hand-rearing of an orangutan named Appius by a British spinster; a young girl whose visions lead to her working as a fortune teller; and the reminiscences of a woman lying on her death bed in final few days of her life. She died tragically young, after being wounded when her flat was struck by a bomb during the blitz of 1940. An ephemeral item, scarce thus.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Good