Country Notes in Wartime (1940)
Rare First Edition of Vita Sackville-West's Country Notes in Wartime
Sackville-West, Vita. Country Notes in Wartime. London: Hogarth Press, 1940.
Small octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition.
Rare first edition of this slim volume of observations on country life--its seasons, its growth--in the midst of the Second World War. Written in the earlier days of World War II, this was published as a Christmas gift book by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press--a thoughtful gift, but also affordable at just two shillings and six pence. Sackville-West's essays focus on the growing intrusions of World War II into British rural life, from the blackouts to the planes flying overhead. Sackville-West offers a much-needed look at the country life, its seasons and perennial growth, while showing the ways that the war touched even the most bucolic parts of England. Book with mild offsetting from wartime paper jacket to endpapers, interior generally fine, and mild sunning to bottom edge of cloth. Dust jacket with small closed tear to front panel, light wear to extremities, and a few crease marks to rear panel. An extremely good copy.