Walt. An Evil Motherhood. An Impressionist Novel.

by RUDING

£300 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Oedipal Insanity RUDING, Walt. An Evil Motherhood. An Impressionist Novel. London: Elkin Mathews. 1896 (but November 1895). 8vo. Publisher’s blue cloth, spiderweb blocked in pale blue to upper board, spine and upper board lettered in gilt; lithographic frontispiece by Beardsley ( see below ), halftone first-issue frontispiece (titled ‘Swan Electric Engraving Company’ at foot) by Beardsley loosely inserted; pp. [x], 99, [1], 20 (advertisements); slight fading to spine lettering, upper hinge cracked; slight toning to upper margin; but a very good copy, partly uncut. First edition, third issue, of the only known work by the mysterious Walter Ruding, following a son whose mother unjustly has him committed to an insane asylum, with the suppressed first-issue frontispiece loosely inserted. Little is known of Ruding (1870–1895): he attended Christ’s Hospital School and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1889 but left before sitting his exams; he was married to Edith Johnstone (author of A Sunless Heart and protégée of W.T. Stead) for less than a month, and died in December 1895. The present work was published a month before his death with a post-dated title-page. The only trace of his existence known to Samuels Lasner ‘consists of the inscribed copies of [ An Evil Motherhood ] and Beardsley’s request, in January 1896, for the publisher to send him a copy of “Mr. Ruding’s book”’. The protagonist of the present work ‘cannot make anything of his life even after his re

• Binding: Hardcover

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