THE FORTUNATE SHEPHERDS: A COTSWOLD PASTORAL.

London: Duckworth/ The Greenleaf Studio, 1922. Illustrated wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR. 8vo, pp. 52, incl. 160 b/w illustrations by Smedley. Publisher's original illustrated buff wrappers, lettered in black, stapled beneath wrappers. Scarce initialled presentation from the author: "To Rosalind, who is so near Arden, from someone who likes her very much, C.S. 1933." Some nicking, browning and rubbing to wrappers, heel of spine lifting, corners rounded. Else, clean and bright. Very good A aptly inscribed copy of an unusual and fragile Smedley title, illustrated throughout by a black and white cartoon frieze header, suggesting the position and movement of actors. Birmingham-born, (Anne) Constance Smedley (1876-1941) was an artist and author, a New Woman and founder, in 1903, of the International Lyceum Clubs for Women Artists and Writers. With pan-European, democratic and non-hierarchic aspirations, she helped women to open clubhouses in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris and Florence, alongside the original London base, thereby establishing institutional support for professional women. A prolific author, for both adults and children, significant works included her early play Mrs Jordan (which Mrs Patrick Campbell successfully staged), her reporting of suffrage militancy for the Daily Mail and the anonymously authored feminist polemic, Women: A few shrieks by X (1907). Smedley set up the Cotswold Players and established the Greenleaf Theatre in London with her husband, fellow artist and author, Maxwell Ashby Armfield (1881-1972).