New editions published in the 1940s
New editions of earlier titles during the years of the Second World War:
It is particularly striking to note the number of new editions of earlier titles of HW’s books that appeared while this country was at war, showing how popular HW’s books were. They would have provided a useful source of extra income.
(The list may well not be complete – but it gives some idea of the range of work during that period.)
Faber & Faber reprinted the four titles of The Flax of Dream:
The Beautiful Years, 1942, 1943 and 1944
Dandelion Days, 1942 and 1945
The Dream of Fair Women, 1941, 1943 and 1945
The Pathway, 1940, 1942 and 1944
They also reprinted:
The Linhay on the Downs, 1944
Salar the Salmon, 1941, 1943, 1944 and 1945
The Story of a Norfolk Farm, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945 and 1946
As the Sun Shines, 1944 and 1945
Entirely new editions of the earlier The Village Book and The Labouring Life were published by Faber in 1945, with the titles of Life in a Devon Village and Tales of a Devon Village.
Putnam & Co. were equally active, producing a matching limited edition set (500 copies each) of:
The Lone Swallows, limited edition, 1945 (This was also reprinted in 1946, 1948 and 1949)
The Peregrine’s Saga, limited edition 1945
The Old Stag, limited edition 1946
Tarka the Otter, limited edition 1945
Salar the Salmon, limited edition 1946 (Faber held the rights to this title. The limited edition was published with their permission, and the title page bears the names of both Putnam and Faber.)
Penguin published several editions of Tarka the Otter, in 1940, 1941 and 1942, including thin-paper editions 'For the Forces' (‘Leave this book at a Post Office when you have read it, so that men and women in the Services may enjoy it too’), and for 'The Forces Book Club', advertising the Prisoners of War Book Service.
HW was also, as usual, busy writing articles through the war years, notably in:
The Scythe
The Eastern Daily Press – a regular column during 1941-1944, entitled ‘Green Fields and Pavements’ (posthumously collected and published as Green Fields and Pavements, edited by John Gregory, HWS, 1995; e-book 2013)
The Evening Standard – a regular column during 1944-1945, entitled ‘A Breath of Country Air’ (posthumously collected and published as A Breath of Country Air, edited by John Gregory, HWS, Part 1, 1990 (out of print); Part 2, 1991; one-vol. e-book 2013)
All this was in addition to the running of the Norfolk Farm.
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Other important new editions in the later 1940s:
The Gold Falcon, Faber & Faber, new revised edition (the 'third text'), January 1947, reprinted February 1947
The book was heavily revised for the new edition and contains some real names in place of the fictional ones. See the original entry for details, and HWSJ 45, September 2009 for background information.
The Star-born, Faber & Faber, new revised edition, 1948
The edition was illustrated by Mildred Eldridge with 8 full page lithographs and 35 line drawings which were equally evocative (if not more so) than the woodcuts by C. F. Tunnicliffe in the first edition.
This book too was heavily revised for the new edition. See the original entry for details.
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In July 1959 HW, at Ken Allsop's request, wrote four pages of notes outlining the reasons that he revised his books. Allsop, a well-known broadcaster and journalist, and HW were friends, and corresponded regularly at the time. This memorandum has only recently (January 2017) come to light among Allsop's papers.
(Courtesy of Tristan Allsop)
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