The book was not published in England.
The large bookplate is that of Lloyd Emerson Siberell (1905-1968), collector and first bibliographer of John Cowper Powys.
The small bookplate on the front endpaper is that of F. R. Furber, city lawyer, bibliophile and author of two books on golf, A Course for Heroes A History of The Royal St. George's Golf Club, 1996 and The Moles 1911 - 2011 a Byroad in Golfing History, 2011.
(Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 9th September, 2016.)
About Powys’s approach to this book, Dante Thomas notes that ‘the game of listing the “best” books was a popular one earlier in the century, following Sir John Lubbock’s lead’. Thomas felt no compulsion to add to his comment on Lubbock, who is all but forgotten today. However, Lubbock was an important man, the MP responsible for introducing the Bank Holidays Act (1871), and as principal of the Working Men’s College in London, he gave a speech in 1886 in which he listed 100 books.
It is worth noting that, whilst safe in America from the war that was destroying others of his generation in the trenches of France, Powys spent a lot of time writing away for his friend Shaw’s publishing venture. Apart from One Hundred Best Books, 1916 also saw the publication of Wolf’s Bane Rhymes, Rodmoor, Suspended Judgments and Confessions of Two Brothers (co-authored with Llewellyn Powys).
The advertisements at the back of the book are of interest for listing the non-JCP authors published by Shaw. These were Theodore Francis Powys, Ian Campbell Hannah, I. B. Stoughton Holborn.
The book.
John Cowper Powys, One Hundred Best Books, G. Arnold Shaw, New York, 1916.
In 1923 One Hundred Best Books was reprinted by E. H. Haldeman-Julius of Girard, Kansas as number 435 of the Little Blue Books.
Given that Phyllis Playter was a reader for Haldeman-Julius, publishers of the Little Blue Books, and had met JCP only two years before the publication date, it is highly likely that she recommended One Hundred Best Books to Haldeman-Julius for publication.
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| As a Little Blue Book |
