147
148
150
147 WILLIAMS, Rhoda Omosunlola. Miss Williams’ Cookery Book. London: Longman’s Green and Co., 1957 First edition, first impression, of the first Nigerian cookery book written by a Nigerian woman. Rhoda Omosunlola Johnston-Smith ( née Williams, c .1925–2017) authored over 30 books and was a key proponent of women’s education and Yoruba culture and traditions. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered and decorated in pink. With dust jacket. Colour frontispiece, 2 photographic plates, and numerous illustrations in the text. Minor sunning to top edge of boards, occasional foxing; a very good copy indeed in like jacket, rubbed and a little soiled, nicks to spine ends, short closed tears to top edge of front panel. £750 [161880] 148 WOLFF, Charlotte. Bisexuality. London: Quartet Books, 1977 First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the journalist and Labour peer Joan Bakewell on the front free endpaper, “A Happy revoir with Joan, Charlotte 4th November 77”. This pioneering work was the first serious academic study to be published on the subject of bisexuality and was the result of interviews with 150 self-identified bisexuals. Octavo. Original brown boards, spine lettered in gilt. With Chagall- illustrated dust jacket. Trivial bumps to spine ends, a couple of corners turned at pages that also have marginal pen lines, faint mark to fore edge. A near-fine copy in very good jacket indeed, spine and edges of rear panel sunned, head of spine creased, a little rubbed with tiny chips at spine ends and corners, still attractive. ¶ Charlotte Wolff, On the Way to Myself: Communications to a Friend , 1969. £450 [141138]
149 WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary. The Wrongs of Woman: or, Maria. London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1798 the fictional counterpart to a vindication of the rights of woman First edition of the author’s unfinished novella, conceived as as a pseudo-novelized response to her pioneering treatise on women’s rights (1792). It was seen through the press by Wollstonecraft’s husband William Godwin in the year following her death. “As in the Rights of Woman , Wollstonecraft’s principal concern in Maria is less with the institutions that oppress women than with the experience of being female, with the emotional violence and intellectual debilitation on which feminine subjectivity is founded . . . Wollstonecraft’s final novel made explosively plain what the Rights of Woman had only partially intimated: that women’s entitlements – as citizens, mothers, and sexual beings – are incompatible with a patriarchal marriage system” (Taylor, pp. 55–6, 235–6). Moreover, “by using fiction to convince her female readers of her claims about the negative influence of sentimental literature upon the female character, Wollstonecraft attempts to counteract its influence and change her readers’ characters – an objective that would have seemed unattainable in Rights of Woman , given that so few women read polemical prose” (Faubert, p. 13). It is only by reading the two works in tandem that “one sees Wollstonecraft’s message clearly: the traditional ideals of literary sensibility are responsible for perverting feminine character” (ibid., p. 40). Two volumes, small octavo (149 × 91 mm). Late 19th-century half calf, spines with raised bands, floral gilt decoration in compartments, red and black morocco labels, marbled sides and endpapers, edges yellow. Bound as a standalone work without general series title and half-titles. Extremities slightly rubbed, couple of spots of wear, small patch of skinning to one lower corner, faint foxing to outer leaves, mild toning
Secretary Edith How-Martyn; a portrait of each is included opposite their respective birthdays. Although undated, it must have been published sometime between February 1909 (when Despard was elected President) and December 1910 (when Billington-Greig resigned), as Murray’s preface gives their titles accurate at the time of printing. The Bodleian dates their copy, a feature piece in their 2016 exhibition Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared , to c .1910. Here each day of the month is paired with an inspirational quotation, each supplied by a different League member or supporter, with their name given above; many contributors are credited through initials only, likely a deliberate obfuscation of identity. We can trace seven examples in institutions: six in the UK (British Library, LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, National Library of Scotland, University of Glasgow) and one in the US (Boston Public Library). Small octavo. Original paper-covered boards, blocked in horizontal stripes in the colours of the WFL (white, gold, and green), front cover lettered in gilt, brown endpapers. With three black and white photographic portraits of the WFL’s leaders, Charlotte Despard, Teresa Billington-Greig, and Edith How-Martyn. Handwritten name of one “N. L. Atkinson” in blue ink to 24 February entry. Spine darkened, ends bumped, extremities gently worn and covers soiled, contents generally clean with occasional light foxing, book block cracked in a couple of places but holding very firm; a very good copy of a scarce item. ¶ Bodleian Libraries, article on “Suffrage: fundraising”, part of their Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared online exhibition, 2016. £2,750 [161015]
149
to contents, occasional marks to margins of vol. II, otherwise clean. A very good copy. ¶ ESTC T114184; NCBEL 1254; Windle A8a ( Posthumous Works ). Michelle Faubert, ed., Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria , 2012; Barbara Taylor, Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination , 2003. £3,250 [161407] 150 WOMEN’S FREEDOM LEAGUE. Birthday Book. Glasgow: [printed by Gilmour & Lawrence Printers for] Women’s Freedom League Suffrage Centre, [c.1910] the scottish women’s freedom league and its “scattered members” An uncommon women’s suffrage birthday book, published to fundraise for the Scottish Council of the Women’s Freedom League, compiled by Eunice Murray, future president of the WFL in Scotland and the first Scotswoman to stand for parliament. It comprises contributions from a number of significant Scottish suffragettes including Helen Fraser, Alexia Jack, and Anna Munro. Murray dedicates the book to WFL President Charlotte Despard, Organizing Secretary Teresa Billington-Greig, and
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
110
111
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker