RANSOME, Arthur.

£2,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Bohemia in London. First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his literary agent on the front free endpaper, "Hugh Massie, with admiration and thanks from Arthur Ransome". Ransome's first success was dedicated to his fellow novelist M. P. Shiel and based on the author's own experiences in the capital. Hughes Massie (1876-1921), whose bookplate on the front pastedown is emblazoned with his family motto "Justus propositi tenax", founded a successful literary agency with Curtis Brown in 1906. Ransome, one of his early clients, thanks him in the printed note on the verso of the dedication page: "It would never have been finished but for the strenuous scolding and encouragement of Mr Hughes Massie" (p. [vi]). The chapter entitled "A Chelsea Evening" evocatively encapsulates Ransome's life in London, detailing a literary soirée at the home of the artist, writer, and occultist Pamela Colman Smith. Smith "entertained many writers and artists such as Arthur Ransome, Bram Stoker, John Masefield, Lady Gregory, Florence Farr, and above all W. B. Yeats, who deeply influenced her" (Decker & Dummett, p. 1910).The book's illustrator, Fred Thomas (1875-1963), worked primarily as a poster artist. He "was suggested to Ransome by his poster of a newsboy used to advertise the stationer and bookseller W. H. Smith & Son" (Hammond). His contribution helps to make this "easily the best-looking Ransome volume ever produced" (Brogan, p. 55).

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