Novelist
Richard Aldington
Death of a Hero
London, Chatto & Windus, 1929
First published in New York, Death of A Hero became a bestseller in the U.K. and made Aldington famous. Although an “authorized unexpurgated” edition was published in Paris in 1930 by Henri Babou and Frank Kahane, it was not until 1965 that a complete and unabridged edition based on the original typescript was published. The novel was described by George Orwell as “much the best of the English war books”. The modernist dust jacket design is by Paul Nash, the British artist who had earlier illustrated Aldington’s Images of War, and who had recently provided many of the illustrations for the subscribers edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. This copy is inscribed by Aldington to Kenneth Marshall, a fellow poet, thanking him for his “prompt and affectionate help in the “hero’s” first campaign.”
Richard Aldington
Death of a Hero
London, Chatto & Windus, 1929
This copy is inscribed by Aldington to Reginald Addyes-Scott (1891-1974), a British bibliophile, in 1948 with a lengthy inscription explaining how and where the book was written, and the requirement for fewer excisions in the U.S. than in the U.K., resulting in its being first published in the U.S. Bookplate of Anne Powell.
By kind permission of the Estate of Richard Aldington, c/o Rosica Colin Limited, London.
Richard Aldington.
Smert’ Geroya [Death of a Hero.] Preface by D. Gorbov. Translated into Russian by A.V. Kritsova and Eugene Lanna.
Moscow-Leningrad: State Publishing House of Fiction, 1932.
The first of Aldington’s works to be translated into Russian, this edition features a remarkable sketch on the front cover of a WWI soldier beside a snowman which has a skull for its head. This edition, the only edition of Death of a Hero to be illustrated, has black and white woodcuts by Petr Alexandrovich Alyakrinsky (1892-1961), who was subsequently awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RFSR for his propaganda posters during WWII.
Richard Aldington
Roads to Glory
London, Chatto & Windus, 1930
This volume contains 13 short World War I stories, three of which had already been separately published and five of which had appeared in Nash’s Pall Mall magazine. The dust jacket was designed by Paul Nash, who had also illustrated Images of War and had also designed the dust jacket for Death of a Hero.
Richard Aldington
At All Costs
Typescript (13 pages)
This extensively marked-up typescript of At All Costs is marked by Aldington: “this is the first and original draft of this story, R.A.”, and is also signed by Aldington. This item formerly belonged to Pat Frere, (1907-1995) the wife of A.S. Frere, Aldington’s publisher at Heinemann, who was the daughter of Edgar Wallace. At All Costs was separately published (Heinemann, 1930) and was included in Roads to Glory.
By kind permission of the Estate of Richard Aldington, c/o Rosica Colin Limited, London.
Richard Aldington
Last Straws, Prospectus
Chapelle-Réanville, France, Hours Press, 1930
This was Aldington’s last War Story. A farcical dispute with Nancy Cunard over the payment for this story led to the termination of Aldington’s strong friendship with her. Cunard would later bitterly criticize Aldington’s published memories of Norman Douglas in Pinorman.
Richard Aldington
The Colonel’s Daughter
London, Chatto & Windus, 1931
This edition was limited to 210 copies signed by the author. This novel, a bitter portrait of life after WWI in Padworth, where Aldington had lived from 1920-1928, was banned by the important Boots and W.H. Smith lending libraries due to its perceived focus on the sordid aspects of life. This copy is inscribed by Aldington to Lord Carlow, owner of the Corvinus Press, which posthumously published a number of works by T.E. Lawrence.
Richard Aldington
Stepping Heavenward: A Record
Florence, Italy, G. Orioli, 1931
This edition, No. 7 in Pino Orioli’s Lungarno Series, was limited to 808 copies. This copy is one of 8 copies printed on yellow paper for members of the Canterbury Literary Society, and was affectionately inscribed by Aldington to Pino Orioli, the publisher and a member of the Canterbury Literary Society.
Richard Aldington
Women Must Work
Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Doran, 1934
Aldington’s feminist novel which tells the story of a young woman’s pursuit of success. The cover is by “B.A.” (unidentified).
Richard Aldington
A Note by the Author on Very Heaven
Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Doran, 1937
The illustration by Rockwell Kent is from the dust Jacket of the U.S. edition of Very Heaven. This pamphlet was a marketing piece directed at booksellers.
Richard Aldington
All Men Are Enemies, A Romance
London, Chatto & Windus, 1933
The limited edition of 210 copies signed by the author. This novel was written on the Island of Capri, which features in the novel and at Brantôme in France. It was banned in Australia, but Twentieth Century Fox bought an option on the novel and it was filmed with Hugh Williams and Helen Twelvetrees as the stars. See the film poster hanging [to fill with exact location]. This copy has pasted in a letter from Aldington to Halsted Billings Vander Poel (1912-2003), a member of the Grolier Club from 1936-2003 and a member of Council.
