HOOPER, Margaret Cicily. Beyond the Night. London: The Highway Press. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in black to the spine and front board, in the striking dust jacket designed by Kenneth Lovell. A very good example, the cloth clean and bright, the corners just a trifle pushed. The binding tight and square, the prelims and terminals with scattered foxing, but without stamps or inscriptions and largely fine otherwise. The dust jacket chipped, nicked and with closed tears across much of the edges, slight loss to spine head, priced 2/6 net with several thin chips to rear panel. Some tape repairs to verso. Still, the front panel remains vibrant.
A collection of short stories depicting the beauty and the beasts of East Africa, written by perhaps the most important female missionary who spent much of her life there. Hooper (née Winterbotham) was born into a prominent family and married into another whose missionary work was notable. After a Cornwall honeymoon, the Hoopers set out for Kenya, observing its customs, its histories, its myths. Hooper took great interest in improving the lives of East African women at a time when Victorian colonial thought prevailed. Chapters include the local ‘magic’ of the medicine man, a first day at school for a typical African child, a police raid in a bazaar, and, as the excellent jacket art depicts, the stalking of a woman by a leopard hiding in the undergrowth. Hooper produced several lectures and essays, and these fictional short stories showcase a warm if not simplistic alternative of dispelling the African stereotype. Scarce.
HOOPER, Margaret Cicily. Beyond the Night. London: The Highway Press. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in black to the spine and front board, in the striking dust jacket designed by Kenneth Lovell. A very good example, the cloth clean and bright, the corners just a trifle pushed. The binding tight and square, the prelims and terminals with scattered foxing, but without stamps or inscriptions and largely fine otherwise. The dust jacket chipped, nicked and with closed tears across much of the edges, slight loss to spine head, priced 2/6 net with several thin chips to rear panel. Some tape repairs to verso. Still, the front panel remains vibrant.
A collection of short stories depicting the beauty and the beasts of East Africa, written by perhaps the most important female missionary who spent much of her life there. Hooper (née Winterbotham) was born into a prominent family and married into another whose missionary work was notable. After a Cornwall honeymoon, the Hoopers set out for Kenya, observing its customs, its histories, its myths. Hooper took great interest in improving the lives of East African women at a time when Victorian colonial thought prevailed. Chapters include the local ‘magic’ of the medicine man, a first day at school for a typical African child, a police raid in a bazaar, and, as the excellent jacket art depicts, the stalking of a woman by a leopard hiding in the undergrowth. Hooper produced several lectures and essays, and these fictional short stories showcase a warm if not simplistic alternative of dispelling the African stereotype. Scarce.
