Freedom

London: Headley Brothers Ltd, 1917. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Octavo, 106pp., plus advertising leaf at rear. A good copy in the publisher's plain boards with labels to front board and spine, as issued. General wear to extremities, spine gnetly cocked, but internally clean and sound. This copy with a fantastic association, SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Cannan in the year of publication to would-be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom J. Ramsay MacDonald: "J. Ramsay MacDonald from Gilbert Cannan 1917." The connection between the two figures is significant. Cannan, who had been employed as a secretary by author J. M. Barrie, developed close relationships with many of the important modernist literary figures of his day. He then became a conscientious objector during World War I, which is likely what brought him into contact with the then-MP MacDonald, who was making waves in the Labour Party and in British society for his own vocal opposition to the war. Despite Cannan's illustrious life, he battled with mental illness, and he spent the last three decades of his life as a patient at Holloway Sanatorium. "Freedom" is scarce signed by Cannan, especially with such a wonderful anti-war association.