1951-1969 A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight

Description

Author's Presentation Copy, First Edition, Publishers' Original Binding, Signed, With Dustwrapper

Thirteen volumes only of this fifteen volume series. Lacking the novels 'Donkey Boy' and 'The Phoenix Generation', books two and twelve in the series.

Including a signed presentation copy of 'A Test to Destruction', with the inscription 'For Cynthia Deeny (of request of John Deeny whom none can refuse), Henry Williamson, December 1960' to the verso of the title page.

Williamson's series follows the life of Phillip Maddison through the first half of the twentieth century, partially inspired by the author's own life. The novels provide a social history of England between 1893 and 1947, with the series being considered one of the longest single works written in the English language.

Present are:

The first edition, first impression of 'The Dark Lantern', with two unclipped copies of the publisher's original dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'Young Phillip Maddison', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'How Dear is Life', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'A Fox Under My Cloak', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'The Golden Virgin', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper, and wraparound band.

A signed copy of the first edition, first impression of 'A Test to Destruction', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'The Innocent Moon', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'The Innocent Moon', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'It Was the Nightingale', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'The Power of the Dead', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'A Solitary War', with the publisher's original clipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'Lucifer Before Sunrise', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

The first edition, first impression of 'The Gale of the World', with the publisher's original unclipped dust wrapper.

A lovely set of this celebrated work. Anthony Burgess said of the series '[This book] puts Mr. Williamson, as a writer on the First World War, where his “Tarka the Otter” put him as a nature-writer – in the first rank'.