The Beloved House

Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1940. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good +/Good. SIGNED. 239pp. Octavo. Rust-colored cloth over boards lettered and pictorially stamped in gilt. Very subtle edge wear to the spine and boards, including a minor ding along the top edge of the rear board. Thin 4" stain to the rear free endpaper. In the dust jacket, with periodic closed and open tears (mostly small), that have been backed with old, disintegrating tape. Pearce's study of American Southwestern nature writer Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934). Illustrated with photographs. Inscribed by the author to Olive Rush on the half title page: "For Olive Rush with gratitude / for the beautiful portrait of / Mary and its place in this / book / T. M. Pearce." Olive Rush contributed the oil painting used on the front panel of the dust jacket.