OPEN THE DOOR!: A Volume of Stories

First edition, first printing. Inscribed association copy. Original burgundy cloth with gilt lettering to the spine, in the John Farleigh illustrated dustwrapper. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt bright and clean, the contents clean throughout. There is a little fading to the upper spine tip, and a tiny bump to the outer upper corner of the front panel. The dustwrapper, with rubbing and minor scuffing to folds and extremities, has an area of loss at the head of the spine (cutting into the first word of the title), and a tear (c. 3 cm) to the lower fold of the front panel (where it meets the spine). Not price-clipped (7s. 6d. net to the front flap).

Inscribed in black ink to the front free endpaper, "For / dear Miss Noble, / from / Osbert Sitwell / November 1941". Philip Ziegler, in his 1998 biography of Sitwell, notes that Miss Noble took over as housekeeper from Mrs Powell, the previous incumbent, around 1930. She clearly became something like a member of the family over the years until, in 1963 when, as Ziegler has it "she was now over eighty and could never remember what day it was and who, if anyone, was coming for lunch or dinner. She was also parsimonious on Osbert's behalf, and was apt to expect to find 1914 prices still ruling in the butcher's or the baker's, would often return empty-handed from a shopping expedition. It was partly the impossibility of getting rid of this loved, loyal but embarrassingly inefficient retainer which convinced Osbert that it was time to leave Carlyle Square [for a flat in Kensington Church Street]". 'Open the Door!' was published on 7 November 1941. 3000 copies were printed. (Philip Ziegler, 'Osbert Sitwell' [London: 1998]; Fifoot OA30).