AVALON: A POETIC ROMANCE.
London: James Elliott and Co., 1894. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. viii + 192pp. Green cloth with gilt titling and design to front board, gilt titling to spine. Original green patterned endpapers. With the ownership name of E. T. Sturdy, on the half-title page. Sturdy was a Theosophist and a contributor to "The Unknown World", the "Magazine devoted to the Occult Sciences, Magic, ... (etc.)" which Waite edited. More recently from the library of Waite's bibliographer and biographer Dr. R. A. Gilbert, with a few penciled notes in his hand, and a slip of paper with a short note on it loosely inserted as a page marker. Gilbert considers Waite at very least the (anonymous) co-author of the book, and more likely its actual author. He observed in his bibliography that "Waite says of "Avalon" merely that it was 'a certain Grail poem ... with which I was concerned deeply, thought it was connected with another name' ("Shadows of Life and Thought", p. 143). And goes on to note that the introductory "The Argument" was certainly by Waite and that he undoubtedly helped with the poem and was engaged in editing and correcting it before publication. However, in his biography of Waite he goes a step further, declaring that "I suspect that Dora's contribution did not go beyond putting her name to the poem" (p. 193). Dora Stuart-Menteath was Waite's sister-in-law and is known to have been the love of his life. The poem tells the story of an alchemist, and his daughter - evidently drawn in part from Dora - who in symbolic terms represents the soul or higher self. Gilbert B15. Spine a little leaned and somewhat dulled, overall light shelf-wear, corners and tail of spine lightly bruised and rubbed. Still a VG+ copy of a very scarce work with an interesting association and provenance. Item #61328
Price: $975.00