BRYANT, Arthur.

£250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Postman's Horn. First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to the three-time Prime Minister, "Humbly presented to Stanley Baldwin by the author November 1936".Bryant was the leading popular conservative historian of the period, whose works were "imbued with nostalgic Baldwinite traditionalism" (ODNB). Baldwin served as Conservative prime minister from May 1923 to January 1924, November 1924 to June 1929, and from June 1935 to May 1937. He had known and corresponded with Bryant since the late 1920s. Baldwin had told the Queen in 1937, "Bryant is a friend of mine for whom and for whose work I have a high regard. He is a real scholar and a real historian" (Williamson & Baldwin, p. 429). In 1937, on Baldwin's retirement, Bryant published a book-length tribute to him.Postman's Horn collects letters from private individuals in England during the late 17th century, avoiding subjects of politics, and instead choosing letters which illustrate their domestic lives and social relations. Bryant's introduction asserts that "the only way in which a man can comprehend the modes of thought and behaviour of a vanished society is by making himself familiar with its everyday correspondence".Provenance: Baldwin's library was sold at Sotheby's, 19 July 1994, this part of lot 314; it was purchased by Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Magazine, and presidential candidate in the 1996 and 2000 US elections (his book label is loosely inserted)

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.