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First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Ju- lia Carter, the first full-time children’s librarian at the New York Public Library , on the front free endpaper, “This book is for Julia Carter, who gave most generously to its making—in ‘remembrance of things past’—with gratitude and warm affection, Frances Clarke Sayers, The Ojai—California, Summer 1972”. This copy is a mag- nificent tripartite association between passionately influential women in 20th-century American children’s literature: Julia Carter is quoted at length in this work, a biography of Anne Carroll Moore (1871–1961), American author, educator and advocate for children’s libraries, regarding her debt to Sayers’s teaching. Carter was the first national president of the Division of Library Work with Children and Young People of the American Library Asso- ciation. She presented the first ever Caldecott Medal in 1938. Sayers was also a significant children’s librarian and children’s book author. This copy also includes an archive of friendship and corre- spondence between Moore and Carter, with 12 autograph letters signed (some running to numerous pages, one of which a beau- tifully illustrated card), as well as a signed photograph of Moore in graduation robes of the University of California, and a small pamphlet of the “Children’s Books of Yesterday, an Exhibition from many Countries” exhibition at the New York Public Library, 1933, written and curated by Moore. £600 [92281] 136 SEWELL, Anna. Black Beauty. London: Jarrold and Sons, [1877] Octavo. Original brown cloth, rebacked with original spine laid down, spine and front board lettered and decorated in black and gilt, rear board blocked in blind, brown endpapers (Carter’s B binding), edges trimmed. Housed in a custom red folding case, front cover with a panelled onlay of Black Beauty. Engraved frontispiece after C. Hewitt, 8 pp. publisher’s ads at end. Tips re- stored, cloth worn, inner hinges reinforced, occasional soiling; a well-read copy in good condition. first edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author in her own hand on the first blank, “For the Patients of the London Temperance Hospital with the Author’s best wishes”, and with a secondary ownership inscription (“Hughes”) above, in one of two primary bindings (Carter B). A very apposite association; con-
ceivably this is John Hughes (1827–1896) who was treasurer of the London Temperance Hospital for about 25 years. The London Tem- perance Hospital, in Hampstead Road, London, opened on 6 Octo- ber 1873 by initiative of the National Temperance League, and was managed by a board of 12 teetotallers. Anna Sewell and her mother were both heavily involved in the temperance movement and the theme is strongly invoked in Black Beauty . This Victorian classic was the only book of its bedridden author, who died shortly after its publication, much too soon to appreci- ate its slowly accumulated worldwide success. Presentation or inscribed copies are understandably rare and the majority are not inscribed by the author herself, but by her mother. In 1938 Carter distinguished three states of the binding: A with the same blocking as this, but all in gilt; B, as here, with the horse’s head, titling, and the rustic portions of the decoration in black (Carter mis- takenly describes the titling as gilt, which invariably leads to the B binding being described as a variant), the other parts being gilt; and C, blocked in black and gilt, with a much smaller horse’s head gilt in a medallion, facing left, the same design as used for the later editions. Carter A and B are primary, and the earliest dated inscribed copies are Christmas 1877. Anna Sewell died on 25 April 1878. Carter, More Binding Variants , Constable, 1938, pp. 37–38; Quayle, pp. 96–97. £17,500 [123401]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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