(1) Stanley J. Weyman. The Great House<\/em>. London: John Murray, 1919. (823 W54gr 1919)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Stanley Weyman (1855-1928) is best known for his French historical romances, which were compared to Alexandre Dumas at the time of their publication. This late novel, The Great House<\/em>, is about the anti-corn law movement. The library\u2019s copy features an inscription from Weyman to Leonard Huxley (1860-1933), thanking him for his \u201ckindly encouragement and oversight.” Leonard Huxley was the editor of the Cornhill Magazine<\/em>, in which this work was originally serialized. He was also the father of the great English novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963).<\/p>\n (2) Ouida. “Held in Bondage,” or, Granville de Vigne: A Tale of the Day<\/em>. London: Tinsley, Brothers, 1863. (823 D374he)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ouida was the nom de plume of Maria Louise Ram\u00e9 (1839-1908), a prolific English writer known primarily for her popular adventures and historical novels. Held in Bondage<\/em> was her first novel, published in three volumes. The Library\u2019s copy includes a four-page letter, handwritten and signed by Ouida, tipped-in the first volume. Ouida lived a tempestuous life filled with extravagances paid for by her best-selling novels, but died in poverty in Italy, surrounded by the many stray dogs she had adopted.<\/p>\n (3) Caroline Sheridan Norton. The Dream and Other Poems<\/em>. London: Henry Colburn, 1840. (821 N82d)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Dream<\/em> was the sixth book of poetry published by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (1808-1877). A woman of high society, her life, especially during the time of the publication of The Dream<\/em>, was fraught with public scandal. On the front fly-leaf of the Library\u2019s copy, Norton has inscribed what appears to be an original, twenty-line poem, beginning, “The God that gave, reclaimed his gift; –.”<\/p>\n (4) Israel Zangwill. The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes<\/em>. London: William Heinemann, 1903. (823 Z1gr)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was\u00a0a notable Jewish writer from England and an important member of the\u00a0Zionist movement. Zangwill is\u00a0most remembered today for his 1908 play The Melting Pot<\/em>, which served to popularize the term and concept. Our copy of his earlier collection of short stories, The Grey Wig<\/em>, features an inscription to “Mrs. Chaplin,” a relative of his wife, Edith Ayrton Zangwill. Edith Ayrton\u2019s mother, Matilda Charlotte Chaplin Ayrton (1846-1883), was a member of the \u201cEdinburgh Seven\u201d \u2013 a group of women who fought unsuccessfully to earn medical degrees from Edinburgh University in the early 1870s.<\/p>\n (5) M.P. Shiel. The Yellow Danger<\/em>. London: Grant Richards, 1900. (823 Sh59y 1900)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n M.P. Shiel (1865-1947), the English popular adventure and science fiction novelist, first published The Yellow Danger <\/em>in 1898. This xenophobic novel of racial conflict was apparently an influence on Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu character. The library\u2019s copy is inscribed by Shiel on the title page. Shiel\u2019s popularity has waned greatly since his death, but his post-apocalyptic novel The Purple Cloud<\/em> (1901) was recently republished by the University of Nebraska Press in their \u201cBison Frontiers of Imagination\u201d series.<\/p>\n (6) Four Grant Richards Items:<\/p>\n Grant Richards. Caviare<\/em>. London: Grant Richards, 1912. (823 R392c)<\/p>\n Grant Richards. Valentine<\/em>. London: Grant Richards, 1913. (823 R392v)<\/p>\n Grant Richards. Bittersweet<\/em>. London: Grant Richards, 1915. (823 R392b)<\/p>\n William Watson. Lachrymae Musarum and Other Poems<\/em>. London: Macmillan, 1892. (821 W33\u2113)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Grant Richards (1872-1948) was one of England’s most prominent publishers in the early 20th Century. As a publisher, he is perhaps most famous for publishing, after a decade-long delay, James Joyce’s first short story collection, Dubliners<\/em> (1914). Richards was also a novelist. The library has three of his novels inscribed in a miniscule hand to journalist and bibliophile Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948). And the library also owns a book inscribed to Grant Richards: a slim hardbound volume of poetry by William Watson (1858-1935) that is inscribed to Richards from “his sincere friend.” If you are interested in Grant Richards\u2019s writings or in his work as a publisher, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library holds a collection of his correspondence, literary manuscripts, and business papers. Additional collections of Grant Richards materials are housed at Georgetown University, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Ireland, and Princeton University.<\/p>\n (7) Edgar Jepson. The Passion for Romance<\/em>. London: H. Henry & Co., 1896. (823 J46pa)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Edgar Jepson (1863-1938) inscribed this copy of The Passion for Romance<\/em> to his sometime literary collaborator John Gawsworth (1912-1970), later known in his own right as a poet and a publisher. Gawsworth was also M.P. Shiel’s bibliographer and literary executor. In the inscription in the Library\u2019s copy, Jepson provides some advice for Gawsworth: “Patience: and shuffle the cards.”<\/p>\n (8) Captain J.A. Kemble. Creeds: A World-Embracing Poem<\/em>. [Calcutta, India: s.n., 1909?]. (821 K232c)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nonsolusblog.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/img_0270-e1348168369510.jpg\" "\\"IMG_0270\\"")
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