Dante Thomas does not make any reference to a dust jacket, though presumably there was one originally.
Facing the title page, within a black border, is a list of other books by John Cowper Powys and by his younger brother T. F. Powys, published by Powys’s agent G. Arnold Shaw.
Under the copyright notice is the imprint “Vail-Ballou Company Binghampton and New York”.
The dedication opposite on the next page is “to the spirit of Emily Bronte”.
The book was issued on 11th October, 1916 at $1.50
On the back endpaper is a sales label in the form of a perforated stamp. It reads Paul Elder & Co. San Francisco. At the time of publication Paul Elder & Co. were based at 239 Grant Avenue in San Francisco.
The stamps were affixed to many of the books sold in the shop - and not just Elder’s own publications, but all the other books too.
Various stamp designs were used over the years.The date of the stamp in my edition (type E) suggests that the book was sold at least four years after the publication date. It bears an image which is a Japanese mitsudomoe design.
The Japanese word tomoe (巴) refers to a comma-shaped symbol. There are hundreds of traditional Japanese tomoe designs. The most common variant is the three-tomoe design called mitsudomoe (三つ巴), which, according to Japanese tradition, creates the harmony of a perfect circle.
Elder first used the mitsudomoe design in 1900, which he anglicised as the word “tomoyé”, and it became a logo of sorts for him. He used it in many books and magazines over the next two decades.
(Information from the paulelder.org website cited 26.10.18)
The book.
John Cowper Powys, Rodmoor, G. Arnold Shaw, New York, 1916.
© John Dunn.
