MACHEN, Arthur.

£1,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Corrected proofs for The London Adventure or the Art of Wandering. First proofs, inscribed by the author on the title and last page with his name and address (12 Melina Place, London, NW8), dated 1923, and with a note in red ink on the front: "Please do not wire-stitch any proofs which you send to me"; with his ink and pencil corrections throughout. The London Adventure is considered to be the final part of Machen's autobiographical trilogy, the other volumes being Far Off Things (1922) and Things Near and Far (1923). For Machen, London was "the true focus of his work … it provided him with a new means of experiencing his environment … like De Quincey before him, [he] stands within the tradition of the writer as walker, his portrayal of London rooted in his wanderings through the city. In this respect, Machen may be regarded both as an example of the flâneur, as well as a prototype for the psychogeographer of today … [and] nowhere is he more explicit about the impact that the city was to have on his life (in as far as Machen is ever explicit about anything), than in the pages of The London Adventure (1924)" (Coverley, pp. 52-4).Provenance: Frank Irving Fletcher (1881-1963), copywriter and advertising manager at Saks Fifth Avenue, his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 19 April 1932; Parke-Bernet, New York, 10 December 1958.

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