The Witch in the Wood.

London: Collins,, 1940. First UK edition, first impression, of White's second Arthurian book. It was first published in the US the preceding year. The work continues the story of the newly crowned King Arthur, his tutelage by the wise Merlyn, his war against King Lot, and also introduces the Orkney clan, a group of characters who would cause the eventual downfall of the king. White was ultimately dissatisfied with it and heavily revised the text before its inclusion in The Once and Future King, trimming nearly 100 pages and retitling it The Queen of Air and Darkness. Octavo. Original grey cloth, titles to spine on green ground, top edge green, bottom edge untrimmed. With dust jacket. Line-drawing chapter head- and tailpieces. Neat ownership inscription of "K. W. Howarth" on front free endpaper, possibly Dean of Salisbury Kenneth William Haworth (1903-1988), who, like White, studied at both Cheltenham and Cambridge. Spine cocked, ends browned, foxing to edges and margins, a very good copy in the like, faintly soiled, jacket, loss to head of rear panel and spine ends, affecting a couple letters of text, creasing and chips to edges, remaining a better than usual example.