Product Description
Hanley inscribed to Ben Raeburn with ALS, a wartime novel of the Blitz in scarce Economy jacket, linking author and publisher Third impression, published May 1943, one month after the first edition-this volume captures the height of the London Blitz through a fragmented, impressionistic narrative of a single night during the Blitz.
The copy retains its fragile wartime 'Economy Standard' dust jacket, printed on thin rationed stock, a fragile survivor of the British 'War Economy' paper rations, and originates directly from the Raeburn/Horizon Press archive.
KEY FEATURES: +++ Physical: Original red cloth with gilt spine titles; "Book Production War Economy Standard" seal on copyright page.
Faber and Faber, London.
Third impression, May 1943.
7.375 inches tall; [1-4], 5-147 [148] pp.
+++ Content: A fragmented, single-night portrayal of residents in a London tenement during a bombing raid.
+++ Association: Inscribed on the front flyleaf: "For Ben & Beryl [Pearl] with love from James Hanley.
" +++ Manuscript Material: With a laid-in Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) from Hanley to Ben Raeburn (1970).
LIMITATION & SIGNATURES: THE ALS TRANSCRIPTION - 'Jan 21 / 70.
Dear Ben, Many thanks for your letter and the check.
We have had a very quiet time indeed.
Snowed in for ten days, and we are just emerging from it now.
I hope the New Year is going to be a good one for you.
Also to hope you are both well.
Our love to you both.
As ever, James.
' +++ Provenance: Sourced from the estate of Ben Raeburn (Horizon Press).
CONDITION: Near Fine / Very Good.
+++ The Book: The bindings are tight and square; the red cloth and gilt are exceptionally bright with no notable flaws.
Internally clean with light, even age-toning.
+++ Dust Jacket: The dust jacket is present but price-clipped.
It is printed on the distinctive, 'onion-skin' paper necessitated by 1943 rationing, which has become characteristically brittle and age-toned.
Minor wear at the head of the spine.
Now protected in a clear, archival Mylar sleeve.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE - No Directions is among James Hanley's most powerful wartime novels, a claustrophobic and fragmented portrait of life during the Blitz.
The significance of this copy lies in its span: the 1943 volume marks Hanley's contemporary reception in London, while the accompanying 1970 letter reflects his enduring relationship with his American publisher, Ben Raeburn.
Together, they form a compact record of the transatlantic network that sustained his career.
SCHOLARLY FEATURES +++ The Beryl Phantonym: Hanley's repeated use of "Beryl" for Pearl Raeburn appears across known correspondence and association copies, reinforcing the identification of this copy within his close publishing circle.
+++ Material Culture of War: The 'onion-skin' jacket and high-acid paper stock provide a technical study of the Faber and Faber production constraints during the Second World War.
+++ Modernist Lineage: 'No Directions' is frequently cited for its surrealist departure from.
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