OLIVIA.
London: The Hogarth Press, 1949. First edition, first impression. Plum colored cloth, gilt title and decoration. 109 pp. Sunned at spine, ownership inscription of Elizabeth Plunket Greene on front free endpaper, else very good, in the scarce Duncan Grant designed jacket, unclipped, with an internal reinforcement at the crown of the spine.
First edition, first impression. Dedicated by the author "To the Beloved Memory of V. W.," and published under the pseudonym "Olivia," it was later revealed to be the only novel of Dorothy Bussy (nee Strachey), a member of the Bloomsbury group and the sister of the writer and critic Lytton Strachey. Viewed as scandalous upon initial publication, and set in the late 19th century at a finishing school in France to obscure autobiographical connections to Bussy, it is considered by some to be an important lesbian novel of the last mid-century.
The neat pencil ownership signature of "Elizabeth Plunket Greene | 1953" was that of Elizabeth Frances Russell (1899-1978). She was married to Richard Plunket Greene on 21 December 1926, with Evelyn Waugh serving as the best man; they were divorced in 1943. Russell was part of the Bright Young Things immortalized by Evelyn Waugh in “Vile Bodies” (mostly inspired by the Plunket Greenes). Elizabeth co-wrote two detective novels with her husband: "Where Ignorance is Bliss" (1932) and "Eleven-Thirty Till Twelve" (1934), both of which received critical acclaim for their originality. A fan of motor racing, she won a grand prix race in Belgium during the 1930s. The Plunket Greenes had one son, Alexander Plunket Greene (1932-1990), who married fashion designer Mary Quant. Very good. Item #736
Price: $400.00