ESCOTT, Margaret. Show Down

ESCOTT, Margaret. Show Down. London: Chatto & Windus. 1936. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s mauve cloth lettered in gilt to the spine. In the striking dust jacket, uncredited. The New Zealand author’s final novel—she only published three, having destroyed much of her later novels amid a plethora of roles in farming, education, and broadcasting—and her most famous, about a native farmer and his relationship with a wealthy woman newly arrived from England.

It was published as I Told My Love in the US (we also have this in stock). Both editions were published under the name M. Escott with no reference to the author’s gender; Sean O’Faolain, reviewing it in The Spectator, presumed Escott a male, comparing the book’s handling of romance and extramarital affairs on par with Hemingway. Some praise! Escott enjoyed the success of the book but failed to produce anything else, despite being only 28 at the time of publication. It has since been reprinted.

A very good book, the boards clean, the cloth spine a trifle faded, but the publisher’s darker mauve topstain bright. The binding tight with a very gentle roll, the textblock edges with some light spots but internally mostly fine, troubled only by some very occasional singular marks seeping. The beautiful dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net) and complete, the spine panel darkened with a small stain and indentation to the centre here, the other panels bright and clean, the corners and tips just gently bumped with a few small closed tears, but an altogether attractive example. Scarce.