Sale 2514 - The Pride Sale, June 20, 2019

49 c RADCLYFFE HALL (1880-1943) The Well of Loneliness. 8vo, gilt-lettered black cloth; top edges trimmed and stained black; original dust jacket, price-clipped. Laid in is a folded prospectus from Pegasus Press, Paris, who reissued the work after this edition was deemed obscene and withdrawn from circulation. London: Jonathan Cape, 1928. [1,500/2,500] first edition , first issue of hall ’ s celebrated novel of lesbianism . The work was banned in Britain after a vicious campaign by the Sunday Express editor, James Douglas, who deemed it obscene. It was withdrawn from circulation, only to be revived again when Cape secreted the printing moulds to the Pegasus Press in Paris, where it was reissued in wrappers with a frontispiece provided by Cape’s English printer, but giving the Paris imprint. Seized upon import into England, Hall and her novel of “sexual inversion” became a cause celebre and the ensuing publicity and notoriety promoted its sale for the next forty years. 49 50 50  RADCLYFFE HALL (1880-1943) The Well of Loneliness. 8vo, publisher’s gilt-lettered black cloth; unclipped dust jacket with 15s price, browned, head and foot of spine panel chipped, heavily reinforced on the verso edges and folds. London: Jonathan Cape, (1928). [4,000/6,000] unique copy of a milestone book in lesbian literature and censorship . First edition, second printing with “whips” on page 50. This copy has a full page photograph of the author, pasted to the front flyleaf, and a 2-page typed poem signed by Hall pasted on the recto and verso of the back flyleaf. Loosely laid in is a 21-line letter from Hall, to a reader in Golders Green (mailing envelope laid down to rear pastedown) agreeing to autograph his copy and thanking him “for telling me that the book appealed to you...but as you know my grateful country still calls it ‘an obscene publication’ and as such the English post is not supposed to carry it. However, although governments may not appreciate the efforts of an author to give their best and to tell the truth, I have had immense sympathy and support from the British public.” Laid down to the rear panel verso of the dust jacket is an envelope containing many contemporary newspaper clippings including the original damning review in the Sunday Express calling it pornographic “moral poison” and reports of the trial, appeal, etc. Also enclosed is a 1-page holograph history of the book and its provenance by a former owner.