The Tragic Mary

Michael Field

London

:

George Bell and Sons

,

1890

.
First Edition.

22cm x 17.5cm. viii, 261 pages. Full vellum, gilt lettering and decoration.

A telling in dramatic verse of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Katherine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper, published under their pseudonym, Michael Field. Cooper was Bradley’s niece and ward. From the late 1870s, while Cooper was at college, they began living together, and until her death in 1913 were lesbian lovers authoring around 40 works under the Michael Field pen-name. This being one of 60 numbered copies bound in full vellum, of which this is number 57.

Splayed. Minor soiling and tanning to vellum. Very minor bump to tail fore-edge corner. Small hole to lower joint. Foxing and tanning to endpapers, very minor to edges. Very Good Condition.