The Saturday Book 3, Edited by Leonard Russell with Decorations by Laurence Scarfe (HQ439)

Published 1943: First Edition / Hardcover / Very Good Condition / Illustrated throughout

Original orange cloth with gilt titles on the spine. 283 very clean and bright pages, previous owners details on the first free page. Boards slightly rubbed and faded with time consistent with age but remain firm and intact. (HQ439)

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The Saturday Book provided literary and artistic commentary about life in Britain during the Second World War and the ensuing decades. It covered a range of arts, including ballet and music. Many writers contributed poems as well as essays.

The Saturday Book was an annual miscellany, published from 1941 to 1975, reaching 34 volumes. It was edited initially by Leonard Russell and from 1952 by John Hadfield.

The many writers who contributed to the series included Fred Bason, H. E. Bates, John Betjeman, Graham Greene, Laurie Lee, Philip Larkin, John Masefield, H. J. Massingham, George Orwell, J. B. Priestley, L. T. C. Rolt, Siegfried Sassoon, Evelyn Waugh, John Moore and P. G. Wodehouse.

The series was profusely illustrated with photographs, woodcuts and line drawings, many specially commissioned. Artists included Edward Ardizzone, Rowland Emett, L. S. Lowry, Laurence Scarfe and Richard Chopping. Photographers included Bill Brandt, Cecil Beaton, Douglas Glass and Edwin Smith. Wood engravers included Robert Gibbings, George Mackley and Agnes Miller Parker.

George Orwell's essay "Benefit of Clergy", intended for the volume published in 1944, was suppressed on grounds of obscenity, but its title remains in the table of contents. Google Books...