LYTTON, Constance.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Prisons & Prisoners. First edition, first impression, in the scarce dust jacket. Loosely inserted are two apparently unpublished autograph letters from the author to one Miss Allen, expressing gratitude for her assistance in preparing Prisons & Prisoners and updating her on its publication process with Heineman. The book itself comprises an account of the author's militant suffragism and her indictment of conditions in prisons.Lytton wrote her book in the aftermath of a stroke - often attributed to her mistreatment in custody - which paralysed her right side and meant she could only write with her left hand. Given her difficult circumstances, it is probable that she enlisted Miss Allen to help prepare her manuscript for print, either by typing or editing. Lytton was pleased with her work: in her letters of thanks, she writes that "these last papers are all as they should be and beautifully done" and, upon receipt of her contract with Heinemann, "I can't say how much I owe to you who have so well and so patiently done all that I wanted".After visiting the suffragettes imprisoned in Holloway Prison in 1909, Lytton joined the WSPU and became a fervent lobbyist, using her influential aristocratic contacts on behalf of the cause. Arrested twice for her protest activities but treated leniently due to her status, Lytton disguised herself as a working woman, alias Jane Warton, to investigate class bias in the treatment of prisoners. Under this identity, she was imprisoned after a 191

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