Apropos of Dolores. "Rebecca / with love / f'm / H.G.," on half-title. (1938) • Babes in the Darkling Wood. "To / Rebecca / Panther / with all my heart & every good / wish in the world. / from / H.G. / Jan 41," on the title-page. 1940 • Christina Alberta's Father. "Rebecca / from J[aguar]," on front free endpaper. (1925) • God the Invisible King. "Rebecca / from H.G.," on half-title. 1917 • In the Fourth Year. "Rebecca / H.G.," with a small ink drawing of a cat, both on the half-title. 1918 • The New World Order. "To / Rebecca / with love / H.G.," on half-title. In moderately chipped dust jacket. 1940 • The Open Conspiracy. "Rebecca / with love / f'm / H.G.," on half-title. 1928 • The Science of Life. "To A[nthony] P[anther] W[est] / with love / f'm / H.G.W.," on the half-title of first volume. Additionally inscribed by Anthony West to his son, "For Edmund / with fondest love / Xmas 1995," in pencil, on the front free endpaper of first volume. 2 volumes. 4to. New York, 1931 • The Soul of a Bishop. "Rebecca West / f'm H.G.W.," on half-title. (1917) • The Way the World is Going. "Rebecca / love f'm / H.G.," on half-title. (1928) • What is Coming?. "To / Miss Rebecca West / H.G.W.," on front blank. 1916 • The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman. "To / Rebecca the Slasher / the Slogger / the Literary Sand-bagger, / from her forgiving Victim / H.G. Wells," on front blank. 1914 • The World of William Clissold. "Rebecca / with love f'm / H.G.," on front free endpaper. London, 1926 • You Can't Be Too Careful. "Rebecca. / Book for Book / When do I get yours / H.G. / Xmas 1941," on half-title. 1941.
With--Rebecca West. Three books, each Signed and Inscribed, to H.G. Wells, her son Anthony West, or Anthony's daughter Caroline Frances West, on the front free endpaper or half-title: The Strange Necessity. "To H.G. formerly Jaguar, / requesting with a pitiful break in the voice / that he won't be too saeur[?] when / he reads it / from R.W.--formerly Panther." 8vo, publisher's cloth. London, (1928) • The Thinking Reed. "To Anthony and Kath[a]rine / from Panther-Rac / 1936." 8vo, publisher's cloth. New York, 1936 • The Vassall Affair. ". . . [L]ove to Sophy . . . / from Granny Rac / 1963." 8vo, wrappers. London, (1963). Inscriptions: Np, nd; 1936; 1963.
In the September 19, 1912 issue of the feminist weekly, The Freewoman, Rebecca West responded to H.G. Wells's new novel Marriage by attacking the author, writing that he "is the Old Maid among novelists; even the sex obsession that lay clotted on Ann Veronica . . . like cold white sauce was merely Old Maids' mania, the reaction towards the flesh of a mind too long absorbed in airships . . . ." Wells found this provocation too enticing to resist, inviting her to visit and discuss her review of his book. The result of the meeting was a decade-long love affair and a son, Anthony--mostly with the knowledge if not consent of Wells's wife, Amy Catherine Robbins. The pet names they used for each other were not sweet, but feral: "Jaguar" for Wells and "Panther" for West.
Provenance: Rebecca West; thence by descent to Anthony West; thence by descent to Edmund West; thence by private sale to current owner.