Author: NICOLSON [née Cory], Adela Florence [pseud. Laurence Hope]:
Title: Stars of the Desert.
Description: London: William Heinemann. New York: John Lane, 1903. 8vo, 214 x 138 mms., unnumbered, pp. [viii], 151 [152 text, with colophon reading "Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson, & Co. | London & Edinburgh," including half-title, uncut, many leaves unopened, errata slip pasted to lower margin of page 1, original grey boards with cream-coloured spine, with paper label (slightly soiled), and inscribed by author on recto of front free end-paper, "Aunt [?Lucy] | from Violet | Xmas 1903." Adela Florence Nicolson (1865­1904) published under the pseudonym Laurence Hope, though to friends and her husband she was "Violet." Stars of the Desert was Laurence Hope's second book of poetry, and was first published in 1903. It was the last book by Hope to appear before her death. The inscription is dated to December 1903, and she committed suicide about ten months later, in October 1904. Her third book, published as Indian Love in Britain and as Last Poems in the United States, appeared posthumously in 1905. Curiously, ODNB doesn't mention that Hope was known as "Violet" by her family and many friends. Inscribed copies of her works seem uncommon. OCLC locates copies in NHS and TCD.

Keywords: poetry presentation copy literature women


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