A Bed Of Roses
London: Frank Palmer, 1911.
Illustrated by WSL Cover Art. First Edition; Early Printing. Hardcover. Very Good- with no dust jacket. Item #15073
Tone, light cock, 1/4" head and (2) 1/8" tail tears, 1926 gift inscription on front paste-down, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover. ; Undated title page with no other printings/thousands mentioned; not the first printing which had 1911 on title page per NCBEL, nor the later 1913 Frank Palmer third printing. Circa 1915, the firm was already Cecil Palmer & Hayward. List of books opposite title page has only his 3 non-fiction tract titles from before 1910. Copyright page states only "All Rights Reserved". Final text page last line: F Palmer, London. Thus we have an early, and probably second, printing of the first edition. A Bed Of Roses was W L George's first novel; a controversial work on the descent of a woman into prostitution. Rejected by his initial publisher due to the threat of prosecution, he received many similar declines from mainstream publishers. "But I offered it to many publishers, all of whom rejected it, at the same time asking whether some milder spring might not be struck from the rock of my imagination, until I came across Mr Frank Palmer, who was a brave man. I offered him that book, cropped of about seventy pages that I thought so true to life that I realised they must cause offence. He accepted it. Those were beautiful times, and I knew an exquisite day when I decided to chance the prosecution." - W L George; "Sincerity: The Publisher and The Policeman" in W L George; A Novelist On Novels; pages 133-134. Neither George nor Palmer were prosecuted for this novel. Book cover design of woman encircled by briar thorns by "WSL". Quite uncommon Frank Palmer printing of W L George's striking first novel. ; 384 pages.
Price: $99.95