BISHOP, Morchard. Valerie
BISHOP, Morchard. Valerie: A Study of a Temperament. London: Gollancz. 1948. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket. A sharp example, the publisher’s retained copy with ‘file copy’ stamp to the dust jacket front panel and once more to the front pastedown. The cloth clean, bright and sharp, the binding tight and square, the contents generally fine, with a few light handling marks and a strange black smear along the front endpaper, perhaps a printing issue. The dust jacket complete, small chip to spine foot, the head and corners gently rubbed with a few other light marks, but a pleasing copy.
One of seven novels by this curious and largely ignored writer, Morchard Bishop, a pen-name for Frederick Field Stoner who also went by Oliver Stonor. He is mostly remembered—if at all—for his association with and championing of Arthur Machen, whom he met in 1926, but his novels are very quietly gaining some recognition. This one ‘the story of how a woman of unusual sensitiveness and integrity reacts to four men — her father, her lover before marriage, her husband, and her lover after marriage’. Like his others we have handled, they drip with a formal, mature playfulness that is quite unusual. In her front flap review, Margery Allingham warns “if you read it in the train, take care. You may pass your station”. Uncommon.
BISHOP, Morchard. Valerie: A Study of a Temperament. London: Gollancz. 1948. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket. A sharp example, the publisher’s retained copy with ‘file copy’ stamp to the dust jacket front panel and once more to the front pastedown. The cloth clean, bright and sharp, the binding tight and square, the contents generally fine, with a few light handling marks and a strange black smear along the front endpaper, perhaps a printing issue. The dust jacket complete, small chip to spine foot, the head and corners gently rubbed with a few other light marks, but a pleasing copy.
One of seven novels by this curious and largely ignored writer, Morchard Bishop, a pen-name for Frederick Field Stoner who also went by Oliver Stonor. He is mostly remembered—if at all—for his association with and championing of Arthur Machen, whom he met in 1926, but his novels are very quietly gaining some recognition. This one ‘the story of how a woman of unusual sensitiveness and integrity reacts to four men — her father, her lover before marriage, her husband, and her lover after marriage’. Like his others we have handled, they drip with a formal, mature playfulness that is quite unusual. In her front flap review, Margery Allingham warns “if you read it in the train, take care. You may pass your station”. Uncommon.
BISHOP, Morchard. Valerie: A Study of a Temperament. London: Gollancz. 1948. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket. A sharp example, the publisher’s retained copy with ‘file copy’ stamp to the dust jacket front panel and once more to the front pastedown. The cloth clean, bright and sharp, the binding tight and square, the contents generally fine, with a few light handling marks and a strange black smear along the front endpaper, perhaps a printing issue. The dust jacket complete, small chip to spine foot, the head and corners gently rubbed with a few other light marks, but a pleasing copy.
One of seven novels by this curious and largely ignored writer, Morchard Bishop, a pen-name for Frederick Field Stoner who also went by Oliver Stonor. He is mostly remembered—if at all—for his association with and championing of Arthur Machen, whom he met in 1926, but his novels are very quietly gaining some recognition. This one ‘the story of how a woman of unusual sensitiveness and integrity reacts to four men — her father, her lover before marriage, her husband, and her lover after marriage’. Like his others we have handled, they drip with a formal, mature playfulness that is quite unusual. In her front flap review, Margery Allingham warns “if you read it in the train, take care. You may pass your station”. Uncommon.