Maggs Bros. Ltd.

Both copies inscribed by Lionel Johnson on the front free endpaper, the first "With Lionel's love. Feb 1892", the second "To his Mother with Lionel's love. 1894", both with the small and tasteful centaur booklabel of "Hamill", Alfred E. Hamill of Chicago, bibliophile, banker and cousin of the great Chicago bookseller Frances Hamill. Books inscribed to mothers have a particular place in the hierarchy of association, and in Johnson's case it is a powerful one, for his mother's "churchism" and "gruesomely apocalyptic outlook" (Johnson himself, in a letter to Campbell Dodgson) contributed to stunt his emotional growth in childhood combined with the family's generally highly conservative outlook to give him something to turn against.

Nelson, BH, 1892.2/28 and 1894.20/93, respectively. Minor wear and soiling, but very good copies indeed in a good quality cloth case with chemises, leather spine label lettered in gilt.