[Michael Field] — Anna Ruina

London, David Nutt, 1899. First edition. Cloth. The vanishingly scarce first edition of this historical work, written by Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece Edith Emma Cooper under their pseudonym 'Michael Field&apos. The first edition of the work.  Vanishingly scarce in commerce.  In the publisher's original cloth binding.  Published anonymously, although authorship is attributed to Michael Field, which itself is a pseudonym for Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece Edith Emma Cooper. The pair write approximately forty works together with the intention to keep the pen name a secret, but it became public knowledge after they confided in Robert Browning.  One of the pair's later historical dramas, the work is based on the life of 'Anna of Kyiv' and reflects their interest in medieval history and tragic love. In publisher's cloth. Externally smart with bumping to the extremities resulting in slight fraying to cloth and minor loss at the head and tail of the spine. Small split to cloth at front joint. Fading to spine. Offsetting to endpapers. Hinges slightly strained but firm. Internally firmly bound. Pages bright and clean. Pages roughly cut. Very Good . Ill.: None. Very Good .