Estate / Collection: The Collection of Erica Jong and Ken Burrows

HALL, RADCLYFFE
The Well of Loneliness. London: Jonathan Cape, 1928. First edition, first issue, association copy inscribed by the author on the half title to Scottish author and socialist Robert Cunninghame-Graham, with three pencil emendations on pages 33, 50, and 241 possibly in Hall's hand. Publisher's black cloth, gilt lettered spine, top edge stained black, custom blue cloth clamshell case. 8 5/8 x 5 3/4 inches (22 x 15 cm); 512 pp. Light rubbing and wear to cloth, corners and spine ends rubbed and softened, slight spine lean, hinges cracked, faint vertical crease to half title, three leaves with a half inch tear at top margin not effecting text, very occasional pale spots, without the dust jacket.

An inscribed first edition of Radclyffe Hall's seminal work of lesbian fiction. The novel was the subject of obscenity trials on both sides of the Atlantic, and it remained banned in Britain until 1949. Havelock Ellis, in his introductory commentary, writes that the book, "possesses a notable psychological and sociological significance... [and] is the first English novel which presents, in a completely faithful and uncompromising form, one particular aspect of sexual life as it exists among us to-day." Robert Cunninghame-Graham, to whom this copy is inscribed, wrote the introduction to Hall's obscure fourth book of poetry, where he compared her to poets such as Sappho, Campion and Petrarch, and praised her writing for, "not striving to be modern or filled with strange conceits." Inscribed copies of this title, especially in the first edition, are exceedingly rare.