Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

A novel by norah c. james. preface by edward garnett.

Item Description

8vo. 8.75 x 5.75 inches. [8] + 217 + [2] pp. + 1 pp. colophon. Bound on original half cream cloth over patterned boards with black spine titles. Extremities worn and a little stained, and some foxing of flyleaves and occasionally in margins, etc.; otherwise a very good copy. The first novel of Norah Margaret Ruth Cordner James (1901-79), set in post-war London. It gained notoriety after the first English edition was ruled obscene by Bow Street Magistrates Court after it was first published in England by the Scholartis Press in that year. This prosecution was apparently on account of some bad language (see for instance last para on p.101), which would seem trivial nowadays. As virtually all copies were seized and destroyed by the authorities it was republished in Paris in this edition by Henry Babou and Jack Kahane. After this experience Kahane (1887-1939), founded the Obelisk Press, which later published other authors, some of whose works were forbidden in England, including Lawrence, James Joyce and Henry Miller. Preface attacking the 'official blundering' of the Home Office for suppressing the 'wrong books,' by Edward Garnett (1868-1937). writer and literary editor, who made alterations and cuts to his friend, D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers to enable it to be published. Norah James who became an acquaintance of the banned Lesbian writer, Radclyffe Hall, went on to write another sixty five novels into the 1970s.