Books

First edition in book form, signed limited issue, number 228 of 250 copies signed by the author, in an exquisite exhibition binding by Zaehnsdorf. This copy is from the library of the American suffragist and writer Katherine Mackay of Harbour Hill, with her armorial bookplate and ownership inscription dated "April 1902". Katherine Alexander Duer Mackay (1878–1930) began her suffrage activities in 1908, when she founded the Equal Franchise Society as an organization advocating women's suffrage in the United States. She was also the first woman on the Roslyn School Board, and during her term contributed to removing corporal punishment from the public schools in Roslyn. In 1898, Katherine married the telecommunications magnate Clarence Hungerford Mackay, and the couple resided at Harbour Hill, a spectacular mansion in Roslyn, New York designed by the famous architect Stanford White. A fervent individualist, Wilde was always sensitive to women's cultural and social causes. He actively supported women's advances in the arts and fostered their roles and contributions in the public sphere; throughout the 1880s and 1890s, he campaigned for women's rational dress reform. Appointed editor of the Woman's World in 1887, he transformed a fashion magazine into "the recognised organ for the expression of women's opinions on all subjects of literature, art, and modern life" (Complete Letters, p. 297), notably commissioning articles on the campaign for women's suffrage. First edition in book form, signed limited issue, number 228 of 250 copies signed by the author, in an exquisite exhibition binding by Zaehnsdorf. This copy is from the library of the American suffragist and writer Katherine Mackay of Harbour Hill, with her armorial bookplate and ownership inscription dated "April 1902". Katherine Alexander Duer Mackay (1878–1930) began her suffrage activities in 1908, when she founded the Equal Franchise Society as an organization advocating women's suffrage in the United States. She was also the first woman on the Roslyn School Board, and during her term contributed to removing corporal punishment from the public schools in Roslyn. In 1898, Katherine married the telecommunications magnate Clarence Hungerford Mackay, and the couple resided at Harbour Hill, a spectacular mansion in Roslyn, New York designed by the famous architect Stanford White. A fervent individualist, Wilde was always sensitive to women's cultural and social causes. He actively supported women's advances in the arts and fostered their roles and contributions in the public sphere; throughout the 1880s and 1890s, he campaigned for women's rational dress reform. Appointed editor of the Woman's World in 1887, he transformed a fashion magazine into "the recognised organ for the expression of women's opinions on all subjects of literature, art, and modern life" (Complete Letters, p. 297), notably commissioning articles on the campaign for women's suffrage. This copy has Zaehnsdorf's blind exhibition stamp to the rear pastedown; rather than signifying that it was exhibited, this means that it was bound to "exhibition standard", that is, applying the highest quality standards in the choice of materials, and execution of the forwarding and finishing. The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, July 1890, and was substantially revised for book publication, with six new chapters. The misprinted "and" for "and" on line 23 of p. 208 in the trade issue is corrected here. READ MORE Small quarto (213 x 175 mm). Contemporary brown morocco by Zaehnsdorf for Charles Scribner's Sons, with Zaehnsdorf's blind exhibition stamp to rear pastedown, rebacked with original spine laid down, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands, spine compartments and sides with gilt border enclosing floral decoration, board edges and turn-ins elaborately tooled in gilt, orange silk endpapers, edges untrimmed. Couple of minor scuffs to covers, joints and corners professionally repaired, short tears to last leaf neatly repaired, internally bright and clean. A very good, generously margined copy, presenting handsomely in the binding. Mason 329. Merlin Holland & Rupert Hart-Davis, eds., The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, 2000.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde that follows a young man named Dorian Gray, who becomes the subject of a painting. As Dorian engages in a hedonistic and amoral lifestyle, he finds that the portrait reflects the consequences of his actions on his soul, while he himself remains young and beautiful.