Thy Victory by Iris Barry (3 results)

Paperback. Condition: Good Only. A very scarce science fiction novel by the early film critic Iris Barry, a proof copy. The proof copy of this very scarce science fiction novel by Iris Barry.'Here is Thy Victory' follows a plague of involuntary immortality which is afflicting those in the south of England.Iris Barry was a noted film critic and curator, who helped to establish the London Film Society, and was the first curator of the film department of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. She had two children with Wyndham Lewis, and was a protegee of Ezra Pound. In the original publisher's paper wraps. Externally, the rear wrap is detached but present. Loss and lifting to the backstrip. Front wrap is working loose. Light edge wear and a few minor marks to the wraps. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Good Only. None (illustrator). book.…

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. The First UK printing published by Elkin Mathews & Marrot, London in 1930. The BOOK is in near Fine condition. Original publisher's black cloth , with spine lined and lettered in yellow. Light pushing to the spine ends with a small bump to the front upper corner. Light spotting to the text-block and off-setting to the blank end-papers, otherwise internally clean. A very mild vertical crease to the rear blank end-paper. The scarce WRAPPER is complete and is in Very Good++ condition. It is correctly priced '7s. 6d. net' to the lower front flap. Some toning to the spine and panels. Some spotting to the lower panel. Some brown light small stains to the rear panel and spine. Some edge-wear with some small nicks and creasing. A small closed tear to the lower edge fo the rear panel. Small losses at the upper spine and more-so to the corners. The (John) Gower Parks wrapper artwork is very striking in the removable Brodart archival cover. 'Barry, Iris [née Iris Sylvia Symes Crump; married names Porter, Abbott] (18951969), writer, film critic, and film curator. In December 1914 three of her poems were included by Harold Munro in his Poetry and Drama, published under the pen name Iris Barry, which she used for all her writings and by which she was known. These came to the attention of Ezra Pound, and her subsequent correspondence with Pound led to the publication of several of her other poems in the July 1916 issue of Harriet Monroe's Poetry magazine. .At the end of the First World War Iris Barry began a relationship with Wyndham Lewis. At times they co-habited, though Lewis would send her away when he wished to be alone. She recalled, 'My function was to be quiet all day and droll in the evening, to flatter, to listen and to stimulate' (Iris Barry Papers, Film Study Center, Museum of Modern Art, New York, DOF 03.04). They had two children: Robin Lewis Barry (19192002), who was cared for by Iris's mother in Birmingham, and Maisie Wyndham Lewis (19202008), who after being placed in a children's home was adopted by a couple in Manchester. Following the end of Barry's relationship with Lewis in 1922, a series of poems titled 'Shadow Songs', published in Poetry (September 1922), reflected upon her changed mindset.Barry's literary works also reflected a broad set of interests. They included a semi-fictional life of the aristocratic writer and poet, 'Lady Mary Wortley Montagu' (1927), and the speculative fantasy 'Here is Thy Victory' (1930), published first in the United States, in 1929, as 'The Last Enemy'. Both had a mixed reception, one critic accusing her of applying a film technique to novel-writing by focusing too much on minor detail, 'which borders upon the pernickety' (English Review, 50, June 1930, 786). She continued to write, publishing in the New York Herald Tribune, Scribner's, and the Saturday Review of Literature, as well as translating and editing the 1938 English language version of Robert Brasillach and Maurice Bardèche's 'History of the Motion Pictures'. Her influential monograph 'D. W. Griffith: American Film Master' was published in 1940. In 1941 she was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur' (ODNB 9/6/22). Richard Hughes (The author of 'A High Wind In Jamaica') provides a a glowing review of this book on the front of the wrapper. Extremely scarce as the first issue with the correct first issue wrapper. Subsequent editions were issued with a different wrapper design. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.…

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, some faint foxing, pp. 256, crown 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in yellow, small sliver of wear at head of backstrip (corresponding to slit in dustjacket), edges a little spotted, faint partial browning to free endpapers, later issue dustjacket (priced 3/6) with an attractive design, very good. Barry's second novel was originally published in the US as 'The Last Enemy'; it describes the impact of involuntary immortality on a small community in the south of England. The author, who had earlier had two children by Wyndham Lewis, had become eminent as a film critic for The Spectator, 'central in shaping an emergent intellectual film culture in Britain'; in the year of its publication, she had moved to New York with her husband, Alan Porter, to take up a position as librarian at MoMA, subsequently curating its film library. The dustjacket here is a later issue, distinct in design from its predecessor (priced 7/6) - it distils the lengthy extolment of Richard Hughes that originally occupied the front panel to the single word 'unforgettable', this carried along with numerous other short expressions of praise on the front flap. …