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87 SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. Challenge. New York: George H. Doran Company, [1923] First edition, first printing, of Vita Sackville-West’s fictional account of her affair with Violet Trefusis ( née Keppel), which began while the pair were still at school, and continued by the two women long after their respective marriages. The novel was printed in Britain for publication by William Collins, but Vita’s mother Lady Sackville objected to its publication, and prevailed on Vita to withdraw it. The suppressed sheets were bought by George H. Doran in 1923 and published in New York with a cancel title page. The novel was afterwards reprinted in the US, distinguished by red rather than green cloth, and remained unpublished in the UK until 1974. Challenge was the first novel to feature Sackville-West in a male persona, preceding Woolf’s Orlando (1928) and Trefusis’s Broderie anglaise (1935). Sackville-West’s dedication is a coded declaration to Trefusis: “This book is yours, honoured witch. If you read it, you will find your tormented soul changed and free” (translated from the Romani). Octavo. Original light green cloth, spine and front cover lettered in orange, floral decoration to front cover in orange. Bookseller’s ticket to rear pastedown. Minimal darkening to spine and peripheral bumping, notwithstanding a particularly sharp, near-fine copy. ¶ Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A9a. £750 [152308] 88 SITWELL, Edith. Facade. Kensington: The Favil Press, 1922 The author’s own copy First edition, first impression, one of 150 copies, this copy is unnumbered, of the author’s key contribution to modern
86 RILKE, Rainer Maria. Duineser Elegien. Leipzig: Im Insel- Verlag, 1923
“although only once: having been of this earth, appears irrevocable” (trans. Ruth Speirs)
First edition, one of 300 deluxe large-paper copies printed in red and black on handmade Zanders paper, this one of 200 in the morocco-backed binding (the first 100 being in full morocco). Rilke’s Duino Elegies represent what is arguably the greatest work of lyric poetry of the 20th century. The origin story of Rilke’s two masterpieces, this and his Sonnets to Orpheus , is legendary: how the first words came to him in the sea wind on the rocks outside Duino Castle in 1912; and how in 1922, after a hiatus of ten years, Rilke in “a savage creative storm” completed not only the Duino Elegies (only two of which had been written at the time), but also the entire fifty- nine Orpheus sonnets within the space of a month in Muzot, Switzerland, in 1922. This copy has the discreet ex-libris stamp of Dutch writer, publisher, and collector Johan B. W. Polak (1928–1992) at the rear pastedown. Quarto. Original green morocco-backed boards, titles gilt to spine with raised bands, patterned paper sides. Housed in a leather-backed cloth folding case. Spine a trifle rubbed, otherwise a fine copy. £4,000 [154037]
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INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
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