The novel is a fictionalized account of Bussy’s education at the French all-girls boarding school Les Ruches and the development of her feelings for the founder, Marie Souvestre. Les Ruches educated many important women, including the “Amazon of Paris”, Natalie Clifford Barney (see item 9), and her younger sister, teacher and activist Laura Clifford Barney. In 1950 the work was adapted into a film of the same name by the pioneering film director Jacqueline Audry, who was “virtually the only woman working in the [French] studio system of the 1950s” (Mayne). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in red. With dust jacket, designed by Duncan Grant. Spine cocked and lightly sunned, spine ends and corners slightly bumped, lower corners marked; a very good copy in good jacket, spine lightly toned, tape repairs to head of verso with consequential cockling to rear wrapper, chip to foot of spine and upper front fold, a few nicks, still bright. £875 [161883] 33 BUTLER, Josephine. Autograph letter signed to Robert F. Horton, discussing his Women of the Old Testament , together with a copy of the book. Ewart Park, Wooler, 10 March 1998; London: Service & Paton, 1898. faith and feminism intertwined An impassioned autograph letter signed by Josephine Butler to Robert Horton, responding to his work, Women of the Old Testament , together with a first edition of the book. Butler offers a lengthy discussion of her feminist and religious beliefs, her disdain for predatory “spiritualists”, and remarks on the biblical women she holds in high esteem. Butler (1828–1906) was a hugely influential campaigner for women’s suffrage, education, the end of coverture in British law, and the end of child prostitution and human trafficking. Her legacy as a staunch feminist, social reformer, and Christian are all evident in this excellent letter. Both she and Horton were involved in similar social campaigns, and Horton’s biographer notes that “Butler’s campaign made a great appeal to him, and he had invited her to address Oxford men in his rooms” around 1880 (Peel, p. 129). Interestingly, Horton’s mother had heard Butler speak in Birmingham a few years earlier, writing to him that “Mrs. G. Josephine Butler much pleased me, and I felt the power of Woman [emphasis in original], but Oh, dear, it is not the thing to speak in public” (quoted in ibid., p. 26). Letter, 9 pp.: 2 bifolia written both sides and single sheet written recto only (185 × 117 mm), all in purple ink, first page with printed header “Please address all letters to me with my Christian name, Mrs. Josephine Butler”. A few faint marks, upper outer corners lightly creased, lower edges a little faded not affecting legibility, two nicks at head of final leaf, in excellent condition. Book: octavo. Original purple cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover lettered in gilt and blind, floral frames blind-stamped on covers. With two publisher’s advertisements loosely inserted. Spine sunned, ends bumped with hint of wear, corners just rubbed, top edge dust toned, a few marks to covers, a very good copy indeed. ¶ Albert Peel, Robert Forman Horton , 1937. £2,650 [161650]
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30 BRYHER, Winifred. Film Problems of Soviet Russia. Territet: Pool, 1929 the first english language book on soviet cinema First edition, first printing, scarce in such a bright jacket, of this early study of Soviet film-making by a “central figure in modernist and avant-garde cultural experimentation in the early twentieth century” (Winning). In this work, Bryher approached Soviet films from purely an aesthetic perspective, avoiding knotty political questions that might hamper artistic appreciation. “This aestheticist attitude was continuous with the exhibition practices of the so-called little cinemas, the art houses of the time, and cinema clubs, which screened Soviet work back to back with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , Un Chien Andalou , or Rain , grouping these titles together on the basis of form and ignoring their widely divergent cultural politics” (Suárez, p. 90). Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With illustrated dust jacket. Half-tone frontispiece, 43 half-tone plates. Cloth bright, spine ends lightly bumped, couple of spots to fore edge, internally sharp. A fine copy in the very good dust jacket with small inkspot, light soiling to back panel, two minor closed tears and couple of chips. ¶ Juan Antonio Suárez, P op Modernism: Noise and the Reinvention of the Everyday , 2007; Joanne Winning, Bryher: Two Novels , 2000. £1,500 [153544] 31 BURDEKIN, Katherine, as Murray Constantine. The Devil, Poor Devil! [Together with a rough proof.] London: Boriswood, 1934 First edition, first impression, the dedication copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to her friend and literary agent Margaret Goldsmith: “To Margaret, from
Kay, November 3rd 1934”, additionally signed as Murray Constantine on the title page, and with Goldsmith’s name written out in Burdekin’s hand beneath the dedication “To M.G.”. This copy is presented together with a rough proof of the work. It was Margaret who, when Burdekin fell into a bout of depression in 1938, gave her research material on Marie Antoinette to lift her out of her creative slump. This material invigorated Burdekin, and resulted in a historical novel, Venus in Scorpio, published in 1940 and credited to them both. Burdekin’s pseudonym, adopted from 1934, was first revealed in the 1980s by feminist scholar Daphne Patai and her writing has since garnered serious academic interest. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in red. With dust jacket. Proof copy: Octavo. Original brown paper wrappers, front wrapper lettered in black. Board edges a little bumped and toned, rubbing to spine lettering, light offsetting to endpapers; a very good copy in the toned jacket, not price-clipped, spine browned, nicks to edges, a couple of small chips to head of spine. Proof copy: spine cocked and toned, a couple of light pencil marks to front wrapper, damp mark to foot of gutters in second half of book block. £3,000 [151274] 32 BUSSY, Dorothy, as Olivia. Olivia. London: Hogarth Press, 1949 an educator’s copy of the classic all-girls’ school romance First edition, first impression, of the author’s only novel, a pseudonymously published classic of lesbian literature, with the bookplate of educator Muriel Orr-Ewing and her ink annotations on the title page and page 18, noting the identity of Olivia, Souvestre, and the name of the school.
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LOUDER THAN WORDS
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