O'SHAUGHNESSY, Edith. Other Ways and Other Flesh. London: Jonathan Cape. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s cherry red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket designed by Prangley. A near fine copy. The cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and square. Some mild spots to the textblock edges, with light offsetting to endpapers and prelims, else fine. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net), slightly faded at the spine panel, a few mild bumps, but a pleasing copy.
The well-travelled American author’s collection of stories, factual in part, of the residents of the picturesque town of Rankweil near the Austrian-Liechtenstein border. Unknowable to those who view the town via the Orient Express from Constantinople to Paris over the Alps—its only onlookers—, O’Shaughnessy spent considerable time exploring the intricate streets, and there are stories here of the landlady sisters, the doctor, the tailor, the forester, the nun, all told with an honesty and a trifle sentimentality—understandably so since the place carries much personal weight for the author. O’Shaughnessy is perhaps best remembered as being the wife of Nelson O’Shaughnessy, the United States Chargé d’Affaires for Mexico. The pair were eyewitnesses to the Mexican Revolution, experiences Edith would recount in several books. The remarkable dust jacket design perfectly encapsulates the town of Rankweil in all the intricacies the author writes of—a perfect marriage. Prangley, probably that most mysterious of all twentieth century dust jacket designers, was expert in crafting such jacket compositions as this—see Seven Bobsworth (1930, Faber & Faber) and Sour Park (1930, Cape), each representing rare forays.
O'SHAUGHNESSY, Edith. Other Ways and Other Flesh. London: Jonathan Cape. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s cherry red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket designed by Prangley. A near fine copy. The cloth clean and bright, the binding tight and square. Some mild spots to the textblock edges, with light offsetting to endpapers and prelims, else fine. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net), slightly faded at the spine panel, a few mild bumps, but a pleasing copy.
The well-travelled American author’s collection of stories, factual in part, of the residents of the picturesque town of Rankweil near the Austrian-Liechtenstein border. Unknowable to those who view the town via the Orient Express from Constantinople to Paris over the Alps—its only onlookers—, O’Shaughnessy spent considerable time exploring the intricate streets, and there are stories here of the landlady sisters, the doctor, the tailor, the forester, the nun, all told with an honesty and a trifle sentimentality—understandably so since the place carries much personal weight for the author. O’Shaughnessy is perhaps best remembered as being the wife of Nelson O’Shaughnessy, the United States Chargé d’Affaires for Mexico. The pair were eyewitnesses to the Mexican Revolution, experiences Edith would recount in several books. The remarkable dust jacket design perfectly encapsulates the town of Rankweil in all the intricacies the author writes of—a perfect marriage. Prangley, probably that most mysterious of all twentieth century dust jacket designers, was expert in crafting such jacket compositions as this—see Seven Bobsworth (1930, Faber & Faber) and Sour Park (1930, Cape), each representing rare forays.
