THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER.
New York: The Century Co., 1918. First American edition. Pale green cloth, maroon lettering to upper panel and spine. Frontispiece, and three additional b&w illustrations by Norman Price. Slight impression on upper panel at fore-edge, large bookplate of Scofield Thayer, the editor of the periodical, The Dial on front pastedown, else remarkably clean and square; very good without dust jacket, protected by an acetate cover.
First American edition, which preceded its UK publication, of West's second book and her first novel. The Return of the Soldier takes place on an estate outside London in 1916, where a woman, Kitty Baldry, is worried about her husband who hasn't written in two weeks from the war in France. Her husband's cousin, Jenny, is her companion through the war and her support in grief over the loss of her young child. Her husband is returned to her believing it is 1901, he is a carefree youth, and that he is in love with another woman of a much lower class rank. He is a shell-shocked amnesiac, the equivalent of our modern PTSD, and nothing makes sense to him. Very good. Item #635
Price: $150.00