My Life and Times - Octave Two 1891-1900 - **Signed** - 1st/1st

Slight crimping to spine ends, darkening to jacket spine with light edge wear, signed 'Compton MacKenzie' to the title page. In this, the second volume of his autobiography, Compton MacKenzie describes his life from the age of eight to seventeen during the last years of the nineteenth century. As a day boy at Colet Court and later St. Paul's, under the great High Master, Walker, he lived in, and not apart from, the London of the day - with its 'Tabalo Veevongs' at the 'Hempire', three classes on the District Railway, and the trials of Oscar Wilde. His father, Edward Compton, produced plays at the Opera Comique during this period - including Henry James' The American; Octave Two contains some highly characteristic and self-revealing letters from James to the Comptons. Young 'Monty' was no stranger to the theatrical world, though not inclined to enter it himself, and saw many of the outstanding actors of the period - from Irving to Mrs. Patrick Campbell - in their greatest roles. The author's mother, who knew Irving well, wrote down her impressions of him, and as published here, they are a record of interest and pathos.…