Wailing Well.

JAMES, M. R.

Published by Stanford Dingley: The Mill House Press, 1928

First edition, number 63 of 157 copies, of the ghost story James wrote for the entertainment of the Eton Boy Scouts, which he read to them at their summer camp. The day before, he wrote to Gwendolen McBryde: "Tomorrow it is proposed that the Lower Master takes me by car to Worbarrow Bay in Dorset where the Scouts are in camp - it is further proposed that by the camp fire I should read them a story of a terrible nature, which I have made - contrary to my expectation" (James, p. 144). This copy has apt provenance, inscribed by Eton house master Aubrey Claude Beasley-Robinson on the second blank to assistant master Robert Wilmot Howard: "With every good wish to RWH, In memory of the Boy Scout Camp at Tyneham & as a token of Gratitude for many Services to the Eton College Boy Scouts". Beasley-Robinson, who led the Eton Scouts at the time, features as a minor character in the story. Howard's pencil ownership inscription is on the first blank. Wilson 6. M. R. James, Letters to a Friend, ed. by Gwendolen McBryde, 1956. Quarto. Vignette title page and headpiece. Original red and beige buckram, spine lettered in gilt, edges untrimmed. Binding lightly rubbed and marked, minor marks and spots to outer leaves: a near-fine copy. Seller Inventory # 191999

Bibliographic Details

Title: Wailing Well.
Publisher: Stanford Dingley: The Mill House Press, 1928
Edition: 1st Edition