YOUNG OFEG'S DITTIES [signed by the author] by Egerton, George - 1895

1895. [signed by "George Egerton"] By Ola Hansson. Translated from the Swedish by George Egerton. London: John Lane / Boston: Roberts Bros., 1895. 16 pp ads dated 1895. Original blind-stamped red cloth. First Edition in English, translated by "George Egerton" (pseudonym of Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright). This book is often collected as a "Keynotes Series" wannabe... It was planned as a volume in that series (as George Egerton's other volumes in that series mention this one as "uniform" with them), and Aubrey Beardsley designed the title page and binding; the book is in all ways similar to "Keynotes" volumes, except that the cover design is in blind rather than in another color, and there is no "key" monogram on the spine or inside. (Stetz & Lasner surmise that Lane withdrew this title from the Keynotes Series at the last moment, sensing that "George Egerton's" star was beginning to wane.) This copy is INSCRIBED BY GEORGE EGERTON on the half-title, "With good wishes from | George Egerton | Sep. 19, 1895." This copy is very good-plus (spine slightly darkened, faint damp-mark on boards' fore-edge, but scarcely any wear). Stetz & Lasner 56 ("... sold in very small numbers and never even reached a second edition"). Provenance: the front free endpaper bears a penciled ownership design (butterfly?) that is dated in 1926.