Velona Pilcher — The Searcher: A War Play

London, William Heinemann, 1929. First edition. Cloth. A smart first edition of this wartime play from Velona Pilcher, with twelve wood engravings. First edition. Limited to one thousand copies for sale in the United Kingdom. Illustrated with nine wood engravings, as stated in text (dust wrapper reads "with twelve wood-engravings"). Collated complete. Set in an Evacuation Hospital near the front during the First World War, but on which side we are not told. Written by Velona Pilcher, an American writer and member of the Stanford Women's Relief Unit, working at the AEF hospital facility at Bazeilles-sur-Meuse. Illustrated by Blair Rowlands Hughes-Stanton, a major figure in the English wood-engraving revival in the twentieth century. In the original quarter red cloth binding with paper covered boards. Externally, very smart with light shelf wear and minor bumping to the extremities. Original unclipped dust wrapper is smart with light shelf wear and chipping to the extremities. Light loss to the head and tail of the spine. Light sunning to the spine and extremities. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean with light age toning to the endpapers. Near Fine . Ill.: Blair Hughes-Stanton. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed.