[Rarebooks] fa: SARAH CHURCHILL - ACCOUNT OF THE CONDUCT OF THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH - 1742

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 10. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/yxksmqxl

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough:] An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, from her first coming to Court, to the Year 1710. In a Letter from Herself to My Lord —. London: Printed by James Bettenham, for George Hawkins, at Milton's Head between the two Temple-Gates, MDCCXLII [1742]. First edition[?]; 8vo (20.5 cm) in early/period polished calf, rebacked in later goatskin with gilt-lettered spine label; 316 pp. ESTC N16618.

Sarah Churchill defends her conduct in this memoir of the events leading to her dismissal from the service of Queen Anne thirty years before, some of the same events portrayed in the recent film The Favourite, starring Rachel Weisz as Sarah and Olivia Colman as Anne. The memoir was largely ghost-written by Nathaniel Hooke and elicited a flurry of responses (e.g., The Other Side of the Question: or, An Attempt to Rescue the Characters of the Two Royal Sisters Q. Mary and Q. Anne, out of the Hands of the D---s D---- of ---------- ). Several issues of the book appeared in the first year of publication, this being the issue with the press figures "4" on p. 94 and "3" on p. 109.

Binding with bumping and wear to the corners and crown, a touch of rubbing to the spine; text block slightly musty, with toning to the leaves, occasional browning and a few spots and stains, otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound. Front paste-down with the engraved heraldic bookplate of John M. Traherne, later penciled signature.