In the Comet's Hair - INSCRIBED to Josephine Evarts, MD
London: Elkin, Mathews, 1921. First Edition. Leather-bound. Squarish 8vo. Pp. 63. Marbled endpapers. Bound by the Atelier Bindery (NY) in three-quarter burgundy morocco over dark red cloth, gilt lettering stamped on spine that has five raised bands. Original front wrapper bound in at rear. Light foxing to preliminaries. Slight scuffs to corners, cloth on front board a tad faded. (Please see photo.) Inscribed by Barney on the dedication page. Very Good. Item #5518 Danford Barney IV was a Yale graduate, where his circle included Archibald MacLeish and Stephen Vincent Benét, among others. As his suffix suggests, Barney's lineage that included the mid-19th c. president of Wells, Fargo, back when it was an express company involved in the opening of the West, as well as officers of utilities, including Hartford Electric Light Company, and Connecticut politicians. The association between Litchfield personalities aptly presented in this handsome binding.
Inscription dated Litchfield, 1936, to birth-control activist Dr. Josephine Evarts, begins "With love to 'Jo' Evarts" and refers to her as "a practiced practitioner - our medical saint." Evarts volunteered to serve as a litigant in overturning the existing ban on contraception, with the expectation that case would ascend to higher courts.
Price: $50.00