THE SCARLET TREE & GREAT MORNING! (2 Books): With Original Editorial

This is two first American editions from Sir Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969), the British aristocrat who is known for documenting the Edwardian era, and then the War Years. His best-known works include his 4-volume autobiography. This set is volumes #2 and #3 of that autobiography.

The Scarlet Tree, published in 1946, describes the Edwardian part of his upbringing, not sparing his eccentric, self-indulgent and unreasonable parents. It's quite funny.

Great Morning!, published in 1947, covers the period just before the First World War, and finishes with its outbreak. As with the earlier volumes it's a vivid picture of the vanished world of Edwardian excess, told in a light-hearted manner.

The original owner of these books must have been a friend of Sitwell's, or at least a great admirer. In the case of The Scarlet Tree, he has cut out a newspaper photo of Sitwell and pasted it onto the title page. He has also included a review of the book from The Saturday Review, by Charles Rolo, dated June 22, 1946.

Tucked inside Great Morning! is two pages of a profile of Sitwell written by the British art critic Denys Sutton for the July 1969 issue of Apollo Magazine--Sutton was its editor at the time.

In the case of both books, the dust jackets are in very poor condition. Because a piece of the dust jacket of The Scarlet Tree is gone, the corresponding shape appears as fading on its spine. There's a tiny sticker on the front endpaper from The Personal Book Shop in Boston.

Aside from that, both books are in perfect condition. There's not a mark in them or on them.