Rebecca West – The Return of the Soldier – First UK Edition 1918 – SIGNED by the Author

A first edition, first printing published by Nisbet in 1918. A very good copy, bound in publisher’s green cloth with titles in black to the spine and upper board. Some sunning to the cloth and on the spine with some minor wear to the spine tips and corners. All corners are bumped with some wear to the edges. Small pale stain to the front board. Some foxing and toning, mainly to the endpapers and prelims and text block.

Inscribed in pencil in the year of publication to the half-title:’Greta Wood, 4 Russell Gardens, Golders Green from Rebecca’

West’s first novel, featuring the homecoming of a shell-shocked captain suffering from amnesia following experiences in the Great War and his relationships with the women in his life.
Actress Great Wood (aka Gertrude Sarah Wood, 1892-1984) was a contemporary and lifelong friend of West with a career spanning from Diana and Destiny’ in 1916 to The Day after Tomorrow’ in 1960. They met as students at the Academy of Dramatic Art where Greta was West’s greatest friend’. After the war ended, West took her son to see a pantomime at Brighton and recognised Greta in the cast. The two of them became the a team’ as West put it. She sometimes lent the struggling actress money and passed on Anthony’s outgrown clothes to her son. Greta helped Rebecca in domestic crises and looked after her when she was ill. Greta married Charles Mortimer, fellow actor best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and spent her twilight years in Newcastle-upoon-Tyne (Victoria Glendinning:’Rebecca West:A Life’ (pp. 35, 68)).