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Treece, Henry.
The Green Man [Inscribed by the author, with his manuscript letter]
Publisher: The Bodley Head, London;
Date of Publication: 1966
Stock Code: 15051
Octavo, pp., 254. Publisher’s olive green cloth with gilt titles to spine, in an unclipped pictorial dust-jacket featuring the Cerne Abbas Giant. With a single side manuscript letter from Treece to his friend Peter Stattersfield. Inscribed to the front-free end-paper “For Peter - to whom this was promised long ago - & whose opinion I shall, this time, hope to get for a change!! Henry. March 1966”. Book plate of Peter Stattersfield to the front paste-down. A near fine copy in a like dust-jacket. Cloth toned to spine, dust-jacket a touch toned and creased to top edge. Accompanied with a loosely handwritten letter on headed notepaper from Treece to his friend Peter Stattersfield. The five paragraph letter discusses Peter’s opinion of The Green Man, with Treece writing ‘I was anxious to know your opinion. I can get ‘professional’ opinions at any time- and they are usually worthless.’ Historic folds and creases to letter. A reworking of Amleth's Vengeance by the 12th century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, which also inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet. Set in 6th century Jutland (Denmark), Duke Arthur's Britain and Caledonia (Scotland), this Europe is dark and sinister after the fall of the Roman Empire, with fantasy elements, murder, betrayal, rape and incest. British poet and writer Henry Treece (1911-1966) was noted for his children's historical novels and reinterpretations of ancient myths and legends. He taught at the Tynemouth School in the 1930s, before serving in the RAF in WWII. £150.00