The Crown Princess by Brigid Brophy
BROPHY, Brigid. The Crown Princess & Other Stories. London: Collins, 1953.
First edition. Author’s first book. The opening story, ‘The Crown Princess’ portrays the fictional Princess Teresa of Retzel on the night of her 21st birthday. The piece is a stylish exploration of royalty, fame, and celebrity in popular culture, as well as an original and sensual meditation on the royal female body.
8vo, 252pp, original cloth, light spotting to edges. Very good in bright dust jacket (a few nicks and chips, minor loss to top of spine, short closed tear to front panel). Stylish dust jacket design by Lynton Lamb (1907-1977), artist and book designer. In the 1930s Lamb studied bookbinding under Douglas Cockerell at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, and succeeded Cockerell as instructor in the school of book production between 1935-9. Lamb developed a fine book design technique that brought him the task of designing the Bible used at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. At the press he developed an interest in typography and produced many book covers and wrappers. (ODNB)
Brigid Brophy (1929-1995) was a prize-winning British novelist, essayist, critic and activist, championing gay marriage, animal rights, vegetarianism, and Public Lending Right. Her celebrated debut novel, Hackenfeller’s Ape (1953), was followed by many other acclaimed novels, including Flesh (1962), The Snow Ball (1964), and In Transit (1969). She wrote studies on Mozart, Aubrey Beardsley and Ronald Firbank. Brophy’s marriage to art historian Michael Levy encompassed a thirteen-year relationship with Iris Murdoch.