LADY INTO FOX.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1922. First edition.
Octavo. Plum and black cloth, paper spine label. T.e.g. Wood-engraved frontispiece, with printed tissue guard, and vignettes by R. A. Garnett, the author's first wife. About fine but for the presence of the book labels of two noted book collectors: Samuel Garcia Asher, and more recently, William Beekman, whose stunning Hogarth Press/Virginia Woolf collection forms part of the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library; two pieces of tape reinforce the near fine dust jacket on its verso (does not appear to be actually needed, not a repair). Blurb on front panel of dust jacket by H. G. Wells, and a list of the "Recent Important Publications" of the publisher on the rear panel.
First edition. Awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize 1922-3. David "Bunny" Garnett wrote this allegorical fantasy, illustrated by his wife Rachel "Ray" Marshall (1891-1940), as a heartbreakingly gorgeous story of a man whose wife unexpectedly transforms into a vixen for whom he then lavishes care and attention. When he realizes he must leave her to her wild nature he is devastated, then captivated by her return with her five cubs. He briefly is jealous when he thinks about her infidelity, but he realizes she can no longer be judged as a woman. One cub he names "Angelica," the name of the author's future wife who is also the daughter of his former lover, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell, the wife of friend Clive Bell and the sister of Virginia Woolf, who had a flirtation with Bell. Oh, these Bloomsbury folk, their lives were so complicated.
Price: $225.00