TAKE HEED OF LOVING ME; A Novel About John Donne / by Elizabeth Gray Vining

Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1964. First Edition. Cloth and boards. Very Good +/Fine. SIGNED by the Author on the front free endpaper, thick 8vo, maroon spine with black label and gold lettering over parchment simulated boards with blind-stamped seal, archival mylar-protected lettered dust jacket with decorative Jacobean border (not price-clipped) designed by Frank Wilimczyk, 352 pages. Elizabeth Janet Gray Vining (1902 -1999) was an American professional librarian, educator, and author who received considerable distinction for having tutored Emperor Akihito of Japan in English while he was Crown Prince. Much honored, Elizabeth Vining was also a celebrated and prolific author and distinguished educator (a VP of Bryn Mawr), whose children's book Adam of the Road (set in 13th century England) received the Newbery Medal in 1943. Overall, she wrote 26 fine books--many for children; fewer--such as this remarkable novel about John Donne and his world--for sophisticated adults. SCARCE title and SIGNED! But for a 1 1/2" thumb-joint shaped barely visible chip from this remarkable novel's first page's upper corner, it would have been graded as Fine/Fine. The book is solid, tight, and square with lightly age-toned pages; plus it has a remarkably clean, complete, and bright unchipped dj. Copyright is 1963 but publication of this First Edition was 1964. TAKE HEED OF LOVING ME is a brilliantly written historical romance about metaphysical--love and erotic--poet John Donne (1572-1631), who, in his young manhood, was a lusty Elizabethan adventurer. After serving in distant wars; Donne became secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Not long after, twenty-four year old John fell in love with teenaged Anne More, tthe well-bred niece of that Lord. This novel centers on the outcomes of the lovers' secret betrothal and marriage which led to that Lord's wrath, Donne and his wife's removal from court, destitution and other surprising developments...for Donne would become a preacher for the Established Church and distinguished, though controversial, poet. This colorful novel includes episodes involving Queen Elizabeth, Essex, Ralegh, Ben Jonson, and King James.