Lucy Church Amiably - A Novel of Romantic beauty and nature and which Looks Like an Engraving.

Imprimerie ''Union'', Paris., 1930. First edition. Octavo. 240 pages. Blue boards. The first title in Stein's Plain Edition series.Presentation copy from the author, inscribed on the half-title page: ''To Gerald who is giving us so much pleasure in liking our [?] may we have much more of the same - Gertrude.'' The recipient is Lord Berners (1883-1950) the British aesthete, composer, writer and wit, whose home Faringdon House was frequented by a wide range of artistic luminaries, including Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dali, Igor Stravinsky, Oliver Messel, Cecil Beaton, the Mitfords, H.G. Wells, Tom Driberg, the Sitwells, Constant Lambert, William Walton and many others. Stein and Berners collaborated on the 1937 ballet, A Wedding Bouquet, based on a text by the former and set to music by the latter; the choreography was by Frederick Ashton. A later collaboration, on an opera based on Stein's libretto Dr Faustus Lights the Lights, was abandoned as Berners sank into a period of depression. This has not prevented the libretto in recent years from being set to music and performed by various American experimental theatre groups.Rear inner hinge completely split. Covers generally rubbed. Head of spine defective. Internally very good. In less than impressive condition, but an important association copy.