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Watson, H. B. Marriot.
At the First Corner and Other Stories [George Alexander’s copy, cover design by Aubrey Beardsley].
Publisher: John Lane, Vigo St.; Roberts Bros., London; Boston;
Date of Publication: 1895
Stock Code: 15514
First edition. Octavo, pp., [vi], 212, 10 of advertisements, 16 further advertisements. Publisher’s original midnight blue cloth; titled in gilt to spine; titles gilt-stamped within ornamental frame to upper board; publisher’s mark in gilt to lower board; deckle edges; white end-papers. Bookplate of Sir George Alexander to front paste-down; ownership inscription of ‘Ju Hayden’ to front free end-paper. Upper hinge cracked but holding; rubbing to extremities; gilt tarnished; light mottling to cloth. Slight toning to margins. A very serviceable copy. Number 11 in John Lane’s ‘keynote’ series of avant-garde, Decadent, and controversial works, owned by the theatre manager who produced Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lady Windemere’s Fan’ and ‘The Importance of being Earnest’. A collection of short adventure and supernatural stories by an Anglo-Australian author who knew both Wilde and Lane through his partner, the poet Rosamund Marriott Watson. The former owner of this copy, Sir George Alexander (1858-1918) was an actor-manager who managed St. James’s Theatre from 1890 to 1918. As an advocate of British avant-garde drama Alexander produced ‘Lady Windemere’s Fan’ for Wilde in 1892, advising the playwright on the text. In 1895 Alexander advised Wilde on the writing of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, convincing Wilde (among more minor emendations) to compress the final two acts into one. Although Alexander’s production of ‘Earnest’ was cut short by Wilde’s homosexuality charges in 1895, he revived the play in 1909. £250.00