J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
P R E S E N T A T I O N C O P I E S & M A N U S C R I P T S
WHARTON TO JOHN HUGH SMITH 87. WHARTON, Edith THE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN And Other Stories Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1908. First UK edition. Author’s presentation copy, inscribed by Wharton on the front free endpaper, “A.J.H.S. from E.W. January 1909.” Publisher’s original blue cloth, lettered in gilt and with gilt decoration to the spine. A very good copy. [36260] £3,000 John Hugh Smith was a wealthy English banker, who became friends with Edith Wharton in 1908. “John Hugh Smith’s youthful crush on her graduated into a steady, undemanding, lifelong friendship. In later life, he became the most reactionary and old-fashioned member of her regular circle” (Hermione Lee). 88. WHARTON, Edith THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON D. Appleton &c Co., 1922. First edition. Inscribed by Wharton on the front free endpaper, “For John. from E.W. Aug. 10 1922”. And with corrections to the text in Wharton’s hand on seven pages (to pp. 66, 75, 90, 203, 211, 341, 349). Publisher’s blue cloth, lettered and ruled in gilt. A very good copy, a little toned on the spine. [36258] £3,000
THE DEDICATION COPY 89. WHARTON, Edith HUDSON RIVER BRACKETED Appleton, 1929.
First edition, UK issue. Original blue pebble grained cloth lettered in gilt to spine and upper cover in supplied yellow printed dustwrapper. The dedication copy, inscribed by the author on the dedication page, under the printed dedication (To A.J.H.S.), “from E.W. / December 1929”. A very good copy with the gilt dulled and the rear hinge ten- der, dustwrapper in very good condition indeed with minor wear to the edges and a slightly toned spine. Housed in a quarter leather clamshell box. [23641] £9,500 The dedicatee is John Hugh Smith, an American expatriate banker, art collector, francophile and literary devotee. When in around 1904 Edith Wharton became friends with Henry James, she joined a group of men who became known as her “inner circle” or, sometimes, “the happy few”. This group included men of letters, artists as well as business men such as Hugh Smith and defined itself against the society its founders had left in the United States, while simultaneously criticising and accommo- dating the one it found in Europe. It existed parallel to but also as a transatlantic mirror of the Bloomsbury group.
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