GRAHAM, Winifred. The Enemy of Woman.

GRAHAM, Winifred. The Enemy of Woman.I am a Worker, a Fighter, a Schemer for a Great Cause GRAHAM, Winifred. The Enemy of Woman. London: Mills & Boon. [1910.] 8vo. Publishers blue cloth, upper board lettered in black, spine lettered in gilt, tail edge untrimmed; pp. vii, [1 (blank)], 311, [1], 32 (publishers advertisements); rubbing to extremities, sunning to spine, pushing to spine ends, small chip to fore edge of upper board; toning to edges of textblock with minor spotting to fore and

‘I am a Worker, a Fighter, a Schemer for a Great Cause’

GRAHAM, Winifred. The Enemy of Woman. London: Mills & Boon. [1910.]

8vo. Publisher’s blue cloth, upper board lettered in black, spine lettered in gilt, tail-edge untrimmed; pp. vii, [1 (blank)], 311, [1], 32 (publisher’s advertisements); rubbing to extremities, sunning to spine, pushing to spine ends, small chip to fore-edge of upper board; toning to edges of textblock with minor spotting to fore- and tail-edges, browning to endpapers; else a very good copy; contemporary ownership signature of Ida G. Bristow dated January 1911 to front free endpaper.

Uncommon first edition of an early Mills and Boon publication, a provocative novel centred on women’s suffrage, featuring episodes of cross-dressing and the storming of the House of Commons, this copy with the contemporary female ownership of Ida G. Bristow (b. 1877) of Bexley, Kent.

Uncommon first edition of an early Mills and Boon publication, a provocative novel centred on women’s suffrage, featuring episodes of cross-dressing and the storming of the House of Commons, this copy with the contemporary female ownership of Ida G. Bristow (b. 1877) of Bexley, Kent.

Winifred Graham (1873–1950) was a prolific author and campaigner whose works addressed subjects ranging from Christian Science to anti-Mormonism. Although she later married Theodore Cory, she continued to publish under her maiden name. The Enemy of Woman explores the suffrage movement through its perceived effects on domestic and political life, although Graham’s precise stance on women’s enfranchisement remains somewhat ambiguous. While the novel satirises activism and its societal consequences, it also grants its female protagonist, Meg, an unusually forceful political voice.

In The Enemy of Woman, Meg drugs her brother Lionel, an MP, during dinner; she then removes him from the dining room and spills whisky over his clothes, leaving the household staff to assume he is intoxicated, causing him to miss an important parliamentary debate as a result. Seizing her moment, Meg cross-dresses as her brother and enters the House of Commons in his place. Rising to speak, she directs the debate to the question of votes for women, provoking ‘a thrill of startled surprise’ (p. 17). Defiant, she refuses to yield, insisting: ‘You can’t shut me down’ (p. 21).

Founded in 1908, Mills & Boon initially operated as a general fiction publisher, though its earliest success already hinted at the romantic fiction for which it would later become renowned. From the outset, their publications proved especially popular with female readers, establishing a loyal readership preceding the First World War. The contemporary ownership inscription of Ida G. Bristow (here aged thirty-four) points to female engagement with a novel concerned with the political identity and social emancipation of women, issued by a publishing house that would itself become closely identified with a predominantly female readership. A second edition, also scarce, was published by Kennerley in New York in 1914.

OCLC finds four copies outside the UK, at Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Monash, and Trinity College Dublin.

SKU: 2124573