Horace Annesley Vachell — John Verney

Leipzig, Bernhard Tauchnitz , 1911 . Leather. The Tauchnitz 'Copyright' Edition of this novel. This is volume 4258 of the Tauchnitz Edition Collection of British Authors. Horace Annesley Vachell (1861–1955) was a prolific English writer of novels, plays, short stories, essays and autobigraphical works. Born in Sydenham, Kent on 30 October 1861, he was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. After a short period in the Rifle Brigade, he went to California where he became partner in a land company and married Lydie Phillips, his partner's daughter. His wife died in 1895 after the birth of their second child. He is said to have introduced the game of polo to Southern California. After 17 years abroad, by 1900 Vachell was back in England and went on to write over 50 volumes of fiction including a popular school story, The Hill (1905), which gives an idealised view of life at Harrow and of the friendship between two boys. He also wrote 14 plays, the most successful of which in his lifetime was Quinneys (1914), made into a film in 1927. Another play, The Case of Lady Camber (1915), was the basis for Hitchcock's film Lord Camber's Ladies (1932). His last autobiographical book, More from Methuselah (1951), was published in the year of his 90th birthday. Although some fiction, like the stories in Bunch Grass (1912), is set in American ranching country, much of his writing concerns a comfortably prosperous English way of life which was echoed in his beautiful old house near Bath and his old-fashioned, distinguished appearance and manner. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and compared at his best with Galsworthy. This volume bears the bookplate of The Right Hon. Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay. He served as British Ambassador to the United States of America from 1929 to 1939. He was the son of Sir James Lindsay (26th Earl of Crawford) and Emily Lindsay. In 1909 he married Martha Cameron. Martha was the daughter of James Donald Cameron and Elizabeth Sherman Cameron. Martha died in 1918. In 1924 he married Elizabeth Sherman Hoyt , daughter of Colgate Hoyt. Leatherbound volume with gilt title to the spine, marble paper covered boards, and marble paper pastedowns. There is some mild wear to the extremities including rubbing to the edges of the boards. Internally, firmly bound. The pages are generally clean and bright with the occasional handling mark and odd spot. There is a bookplate to the front pastedown. Very Good . Ill.: None. Very Good .