Lytton Strachey.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1943. Paperback. 12mo. Stiff lavender wrappers. 27pp. Very good. Tight and internally quite nice, with just light wear and age toning to outer wrappers. Item #48672
First edition of the English humorist and essayist's tribute to fellow writer and critic Strachey (1880-1932), one of the founders of the Bloomsbury Group and best known for his 1918 book "Eminent Victorians." This copy bears a choice presentation inscription in miniscule pencil at upper right of front flyleaf: "Roger Senhouse / 27.6.43 / to / Dorothy Bussy / with love, 1945." Senhouse (1899-1970), publisher and translator and Bloomsbury Group hanger-on, had a notorious sado-masochistic affair with Strachey near the end of Strachey's life -- and recipient Dorothy Bussy (1865-1960) was Strachey's sister, a translator and novelist and also member of the Bloomsbury Group. All in all a remarkable copy, inscribed by the last lover of a Bloomsbury Group founder, himself a kinda-sorta member, to his lover's sister, also a Bloomsbury Group member. Presumably June 6, 1943 was the date of Beerbohm's Rede Lecture and 1945 the year that Senhouse inscribed this copy.
Price: $295.00