Whittlebot, Hernia [Coward, Noel : Pseud.] ~ Chelsea Buns : Inscribed by the author

First UK Printing : Hutchinson & Co., London : 1924

The First UK Printing published by Hutchinson & Co., London : 1924. 8vo., original patterned boards with cubist design printed in black, blue, yellow and green; red printed label to upper board; Vorticist parody frontis portrait of ‘Miss Whittlebot’ after G. E. Calthrop; a Good to Very Good copy of a scarce work. The BOOK is rubbed, with boards and webbing showing through beneath at the spine edges, but the binding remains firm ; small splash stain to label; endpapers tonedand offset with a couple of spots throughout; lacking the scarce wrapper. The book is protected in a removable Mylar cover. A presentation copy, inscribed from Coward to ‘Mollie’ on the front free endpaper. The recipient was Mary ‘Mollie’ Montagu Douglas Scott (née Lascelles), Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensbury. This copy originally purchased from the estate of Ian Gilmour, son in law of Scott, but without any other ownership markings. Coward provides the Foreword and the book also includes an introduction, entirely in French, by Gaspard Pustontin. Coward’s second collection of poems, Chelsea Buns is comprised of 22 poems, each of which parodies Edith Sitwell and modernist poetry. Coward had, the previous year, satirised the Sitwell siblings in ‘The Swiss Family Whittlebot”, which presents a poetess called Hernia Whittlebot. Played by Maisie Gay with lesbian overtones, Hernia "breakfasts on onions and Vichy water" while preparing the publication of her new books "Gilded Sluts" and "Garbage". The resulting feud between the Coward and Sitwell, perhaps unsurprisingly, lasted for several decades. “They confronted each other across a class divide”, Faye Hammill writes in ‘Noel Coward and the Sitwells: enmity, celebrity, popularity, “and also across the perceived barrier between difficult modernism and accessible popular entertainment.” When Noel reportedly wrote to Edith to apologise, she responded "I accept your apology" and didn't speak to him again until the eve of her 70th birthday in 1957. Scarce with such attributes.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good-