MANNING-SANDERS, Ruth. Hucca's Moor. London: Faber and Gwyer. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s brown cloth lettered in black to the spine and front board, in the evocative dust jacket designed by William Nicholson. It’s worth noting that Faber & Gwyer’s bindings often varied, its brief existence and thus limited funds before it merged into Faber & Faber likely the cause here. While the cloth usually remains the same colour, variant bindings use black or gilt lettering, though there is no established priority. Anyway, the binding remains tight and very gently rolled. The contents clean and fine but for stamped ex libris of Charlotte Tufts to front endpaper. The dust jacket, a striking wraparound design hinting at the story within, clean and bright, with several small chips to spine tips and corners, the spine a touch darkened but nevertheless scarce.
A very early novel by the poet and folklorist, Ruth Manning-Sanders, published about forty years before her major body of work appeared—her charming ‘A Book of…’ series which spanned folklore and mythology across the globe and through time, from witches and wizards to dragons and ghosts. Though written primarily for children, her retellings often broke convention and many fizzed with darker, subtler tones, to the private appreciation of many a fearful child. This novel, however, very much for adults. ‘The tragedy of Zephan Wall, a half-idiot pedlar, is that his ludicrous ambitions only accentuate his poverty of mind and body. His patient wife, Deborah, is housekeeper to a gigantic bed-ridden miner, by name Bendigo Scoffern; and his step-daughter, Mabel Best, is an imbecile of twenty-six, who plays with toys and has screaming fits. She is convicted of murder, of which she was innocent, and removed to an asylum’ (The Spectator). The protagonist finds escape only by way of what is illustrated on the jacket, masterfully rendered in wraparound by Nicholson. Scarce in dust jacket.
MANNING-SANDERS, Ruth. Hucca's Moor. London: Faber and Gwyer. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s brown cloth lettered in black to the spine and front board, in the evocative dust jacket designed by William Nicholson. It’s worth noting that Faber & Gwyer’s bindings often varied, its brief existence and thus limited funds before it merged into Faber & Faber likely the cause here. While the cloth usually remains the same colour, variant bindings use black or gilt lettering, though there is no established priority. Anyway, the binding remains tight and very gently rolled. The contents clean and fine but for stamped ex libris of Charlotte Tufts to front endpaper. The dust jacket, a striking wraparound design hinting at the story within, clean and bright, with several small chips to spine tips and corners, the spine a touch darkened but nevertheless scarce.
A very early novel by the poet and folklorist, Ruth Manning-Sanders, published about forty years before her major body of work appeared—her charming ‘A Book of…’ series which spanned folklore and mythology across the globe and through time, from witches and wizards to dragons and ghosts. Though written primarily for children, her retellings often broke convention and many fizzed with darker, subtler tones, to the private appreciation of many a fearful child. This novel, however, very much for adults. ‘The tragedy of Zephan Wall, a half-idiot pedlar, is that his ludicrous ambitions only accentuate his poverty of mind and body. His patient wife, Deborah, is housekeeper to a gigantic bed-ridden miner, by name Bendigo Scoffern; and his step-daughter, Mabel Best, is an imbecile of twenty-six, who plays with toys and has screaming fits. She is convicted of murder, of which she was innocent, and removed to an asylum’ (The Spectator). The protagonist finds escape only by way of what is illustrated on the jacket, masterfully rendered in wraparound by Nicholson. Scarce in dust jacket.
