Lolly Willowes, or the Loving Huntsman. WARNER, Sylvia Townsend.

First edition of the author's first novel, in the scarce jacket. The novel's "mixture of fantasy and acerbic wit in this story of a disregarded woman who turns to witchcraft as the only practical way of asserting herself had a wide appeal, and the book was a considerable success" (ODNB). The work tells the tale of Laura 'Lolly' Willowes, who leaves her life as a professional aunt in London for independence in the village of Little Mop, where "she is initiated into the local witch cult and has intellectual conversations with Satan, who lives locally as a gardener" (Bleiler). The unique and vivid insights into witchcraft that Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) provided in Lolly Willowes left her close friend Virginia Woolf intrigued. When questioned by Woolf how she knew so much about witches, Warner simply replied: "Because I am one" (Harman). The novel "made many speculate whether its author actually practised witchcraft herself. [Its] themes - its view of Satan as a liberator, and its feminist critique of Christianity as a pillar of patriarchy - make it still a relevant read amidst the current occult revival" (Faxneld, p. 29). Occult activities were not the only unconventional parts of Warner's life. She was a member of the communist party and travelled to Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War to work with the Red Cross. She also lived as a married couple with her partner, the poet Valentine Ackland, for 38 years; their love letters, published in 1998, "constitute an extraordinary lesbian love story" (ODNB). Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1660; Wessells 19, pp. 84-7. Per Faxneld, "Spinster Satanism", Hellebore: The Summoning Issue, Samhain 2021; Claire Harman, Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography, 2015. Octavo. Original black and blue marbled cloth, paper title label on spine, spare label tipped in at rear, bottom edge untrimmed. With dust jacket. Spine a little faded, ends just bumped, edges and outer leaves foxed; jacket unclipped, spine a little toned, a couple of nicks and shallow chip to head of spine, short closed tear to bottom of front panel: a very good copy in like jacket.