Keynotes (Previously owned by Edmund Clarence Stedman)

George Egerton (pseudonym of Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright)

Verlag: Roberts Brothers, Boston, Massachusetts, 1894

Beschreibung

This book was previously owned by poet, editor, and critic Edmund Clarence Stedman. His small bookplate is affixed to the front inside cover (see photo).
'After the death of James Russell Lowell, Stedman had perhaps the leading place among American poets and critics. In 1904, he was one of the first seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.'
Keynotes is 'a collection of eight interlinked impressionistic and elliptical short stories which challenged the Victorian views of female sexuality. The publication, consisting of stories titled A Cross Line, Now Spring Has Come, The Spell of the White Elf, A Little Grey Glove, An Empty Frame, and Under Northern Sky (in three parts: How Marie Larsen Exorcised a Demon, A Shadow's Slant, and An Ebb Tide) became immediately popular, selling 6,000 copies in the first year. Focused on women's emotional and sexual passions, these stories expressed radically different views from the stereotypical ones of their era. Keynotes and the follow-up volume Discords (1894), both characterised by innovative narrative style and aesthetics, can be labeled as the first 'modernist' or rather 'proto-modernist' short stories in the English language. The work received high degrees of both praise and condemnation.' George Egerton was the pseudonym of Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright.
The book's title page illustration 'features a woman wearing a large hat and carrying a parasol, accompanied by a Pierrot and a jester-like figure playing a guitar with two masks dangling. It was created by Aubrey Beardsley, the leading English illustrator of the 1890s.'
The book is in very good shape. You can see the covers in the photos. The gilt lettering on the front and spine is still bright. There is a light crinkle at the spine ends. The cover edges are in very good shape. The cover corners look very good as well, no conspicuous rubbing on either. The binding is very solid from cover to cover. The covers are nicely, tightly bound. The junctures between the inside covers and end papers are free of wear. There is one instance of a very thin space between two facing pages at the center of the book. Both pages are tightly bound from top to bottom. There is some tanning around the bookplate and across the way on the blank front end paper, also a tiny bit on the rear inside cover and rear end paper. The title page is in excellent condition. The tissue guard protecting it has a few small tan spots. The pages are very clean. I didn't see any soiling. There are five consecutive pages with a crease above their bottom corners and three of them have a little tanning at the corner as a result. One of these pages also has a small tear next to the crease. None of the creases or the tear touch the print. There is also one other page with a tiny tear off its outer edge, and there is a teeny tiny loss at the bottom corner of another page in the book. I didn't see any creasing at any of the top corners, no placeholder creases. There are no markings in the book. No attachments other than the aforementioned bookplate. And no writing anywhere.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 005822

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Keynotes (Previously owned by Edmund Clarence Stedman)
• Verlag: Roberts Brothers, Boston, Massachusetts
• Erscheinungsjahr: 1894
• Sprache: Englisch
• Einband: Hardcover
• Zustand: Very Good
• Verkäuferkataloge:
  • Fiction, Novels, Short Stories
  • Literature
  • Antiquarian