To Bed with Grand Music.

(Laski.) RUSSELL (Sarah, pseud. for Marghanita Laski)

Published by The Pilot Press, 1946

FIRST EDITION, pp. 158, crown 8vo, original orange cloth, backstrip lettered in black, the cloth a little mottled overall, edges spotted, dustjacket chipped at extremities and lightly dustsoiled overall, larger chip at head of backstrip panel, which also carries a faint waterstain, very good. Scarce. Early work by Marghanita Laski, written under a pseudonym - a 'pungent first novel', the blurb advises, though in fact preceded by Laski's debut 'Love on the Supertax' (1944). The dissimulation derives in likelihood from its controversial subject-matter: it is a 'cautionary tale on the pitfalls of wartime infidelity' (blurb), with its anti-heroine, Deborah Robertson, keeping the home-fires burning only in respect of satisfying her lustful tendencies with a succession of lovers whilst her husband serves his country in the Middle East. The work remains in print, shedding the pseudonym, with Persephone Books. Born in Manchester into an eminent Jewish family that included political theorist Harold J. Laski (her uncle), the author went up to Somerville College, Oxford, graduating in 1936. Seller Inventory # 79283

Bibliographic Details

Title: To Bed with Grand Music.
Publisher: The Pilot Press
Publication Date: 1946