She: A History of Adventure

London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1887. First English Edition, First Issue. Near fine. 8vo. 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 (184 x 120 mm); viii, 31, ii advert.; two color lithographs facing one another on a single folding of heavy paper precede the title, tissue guard. Elegant polished sky blue calf binding by Bayntun (stamp on first endpaper), marbled endpapers, gilt fillets on covers, decorations to edges and turn-ins, 5 raised bands, gilt decorations in compartments, with lettering on red and black morocco labels, lightly sunned at extremities, very light rubbing to spine ends and corners; original blue cloth covers bound in; a.e.g.
FOYLE COPY copy with gilt-stamped red roan Beeleigh Abbey label to front pastedown
[Sadleir 1092; McKay 5a]. Published serially in the London "Graphic" between October 1886 and January 1887, She was inspired by Haggard's experiences living in South Africa for seven years (1875-1882) working at the highest levels of the British colonial administration. In the figure of She, the novel notably explored themes of female authority and feminine behavior. Its representation of womanhood has received both praise and criticism, but the book proved to be very popular and has never been out of print.
The story is a first-person narrative which follows the journey of Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey to a lost kingdom in the African interior. They encounter a native people and a mysterious white queen named Ayesha who reigns as the all-powerful "She" or "She-who-must-be-obeyed". Haggard developed many of the conventions of the lost world genre which countless authors have emulated.

This volume was beautifully bound by Bayntun for the library of bibliophile and bookseller William A. Foyle. It is a First Edition, first issue (January 1, 1887), as evidenced by the word 'Godness' on the penultimate line of p.269. The book was pirated in America by Harper & Brothers (Dec. 24, 1886) with an edition that preceded this official first edition by one week. [McKay 5 & 5a].

WILLIAM A. FOYLE (1885 - 1963) was one of the leading London booksellers of the 20th century. He opened his first bookshop with his brother Gilbert in 1903 and by the late 1920s their bookstore in Charing Cross Road held a stock of four million volumes on over thirty miles of bookshelves. His vision for the business was a bookshop for the world - for every one from any station in life - "The People's Bookshop", and it became a meeting place for famous writers and distinguished figures, along with members of the public. In the early 1940s Foyle bought Beeleigh Abbey, a 12th-century monastery in Essex and formed one of the largest English private libraries of the 20th century. The library was sold at auction by Christie's in July 2000. The three-day sale realized some £12,000,000, making it the single most valuable collection of books ever to be sold at auction in Britain or Europe.