Beschreibung
First impression of the first edition. ***Very good in grey-green buckram boards with gilt titles to the spine. Top edge of text-block stained grey-green by the publisher. Bottom edge of text-block pages rough-cut (as called for). Spine and top edge of boards slightly faded. Interior pages clean and bright, with just a few very light fox marks to prelims. Owner's contemporary name and date in sepia ink to top of front free endpaper. Spine tight. No dustwrapper. ***218 pages. 204 mm x 134 mm. ***Biographical Sketch: Giles Lytton Strachey was born in 1880, the eleventh of thirteen children, to General Sir Richard Strachey and his wife Jane Grant. His mother enjoyed strong interests in literature and politics and Strachey met many of the leading writers and thinkers of the day when they came to visit Lady Strachey. It was at University College that he met and was influenced by Walter Raleigh, a professor of English literature and well known biographer. ***After failing to receive a scholarship to Oxford in 1899, Strachey decided to attend Cambridge where he developed many friendships which lasted the rest of his life. At Cambridge he met Clive Bell, Thoby Stephen, and Leonard Woolf, with whom he started the Midnight Society and the X Society. Along with many other future "Bloomsberries" he was elected to the Apostles. ***Strachey completed his work at Cambridge with a thesis on Warren Hastings but failed to receive a Trinity fellowship. He returned to his parents' home in Lancaster Gate and sought to support himself as a journalist. Much of his social life centered on the Bloomsbury group which focused on the Thursday night "at-homes" of the Stephenses (Thoby, Adrian, Vanessa [Bell], and Virginia [Woolf]). Over the next several years Strachey travelled, visited friends and wrote his first book, 'Landmarks in French Literature' (1912) which was commissioned by H.A.L. Fisher. In 1910 Strachey made the acquaintance of Ottoline Morrell with whom he carried on a playful and extended correspondence over the years. Through Morrell he met Henry Lamb and Henry Norton, who loaned him £100 to rent a cottage so he could begin his next major work, 'Eminent Victorians' (1918). In 1915 Strachey met Dora Carrington, a graduate of the Slade School of Art and the woman who would shortly devote herself to him for the rest of his life. ***In 1917 Strachey and Carrington moved into a cottage in Tidemarsh, Oxfordshire, and continued to carry on with their personal lives. Carrington maintained a relationship with fellow artist Mark Gertler before marrying Ralph Partridge in 1921, and Strachey moved through a series of relationships as well. Strachey's time at Tidemarsh cottage was also spent productively writing. He followed 'Eminent Victorians' with 'Queen Victoria' (1921) and produced a collection of essays, 'Books and Characters' as well. His style was becoming very popular and he began to achieve a measure of fame which allowed him to support himself and his household from the proceeds of his writing. In 1924 Strachey purchased the lease to Ham Spray House and he, along with Carrington and Partridge, moved in. He completed 'Elizabeth and Essex' in 1928 and started 'The Greville Memoirs', which were completed posthumously by Ralph and Frances Partridge and Roger Fulford. ***Though his frequent ill-health often made it difficult, Strachey enjoyed travelling and made several trips abroad between 1928 and 1931. Late in 1931 he began to decline rapidly from an illness which doctors were unable to identify. He died January 21, 1932, of what was later found to be stomach cancer. Carrington committed suicide a few weeks later, unable to live without him. ***A Lytton Strachey first edition in nice condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 2054x
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