A BOOK OF WINTER.
London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd, 1950. First edition. Small octavo. Cloth boards, gilt spine. 86 pp. A slender book of essays and poetry, recipes, ghost stories, and songs, compiled by the poet Edith Sitwell mainly about the pleasures to be found in Winter. Cats are mentioned, as are spirits - both liquid and ethereal. Laid in is a typewritten card with the note: "Sent at the request of Miss Valentine Ackland." Valentine Ackland was an English poet, and life partner of novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner. Their relationship was strained by Ackland’s infidelities and alcoholism, but survived for some thirty years until Ackland's death in 1969. Both were closely involved with communism, remaining under continued scrutiny by the authorities, and blacklisted by MI5 as subversives. Very good in a somewhat hand-soiled dust jacket.. Item #709
Price: $35.00