Two Selves.
An Early “Contact" Book
Bryher. Two Selves. Paris: Contact Publishing Co., (1923).
8vo.; pages uncut; green wrappers; printed in black; sunned; in original unopened glassine wrapper; fine. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition; one of the earliest books published by the Contact Publishing Co., which was founded by Bryher’s husband, Robert McAlmon, in 1923. Printed on the lower cover of the wrappers is a list of six other available titles by Contact, including two books by McAlmon – Post Adolescence and A Companion Volume – as well as Spring and All, by W.C. Williams; Lunar Baedeker, by Mina Loy; Twenty Five Poems, by Marsden Hartley; and Three Stories and Ten Poems, by Ernest Hemingway. Contact Publishing Co. operated until 1929.
Two Selves is Bryher’s largely autobiographical coming-of-age—and coming out—bildungsroman of her character Nancy, who, throughout the course of the book, develops a modernist, feminist and lesbian consciousness. It was later published by Chaucer Head in 1927.
Byher and McAlmon married the day after they met.
An untouched copy of a volume rare in pristine condition.
(#8549)
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