DUNSANY, Lord (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, 1878-1957). The Curse of the Wise Woman. London: William Heinemann, 1933. 8vo. 326 pp. Publisher's green cloth stamped gilt in original unclipped ("7/6") dust jacket. FIRST EDITIOON, FIRST PRINTING OF LORD DUNSANY'S SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL.

The stand-alone novel, among Dunsany's best-known and most acclaimed works, is distinguished from his characteristic output in its restrained use of fantasy elements. The semi-autobiographical protagonist is a motherless Anglo-Irish teenager with a love for shooting, hunting, and the beauties of nature. In order to defend his local peat bog from industrial encroachment, he must collaborate with an occult "wise woman" through which the novel, despite its comparative realism, retains "the feel of the purest fantasy." 

Jacket with substantial paper loss to margins and spine block, tape repairs to reverse, soiling and toning. Bookseller's small plate to front pastedown. Else near fine.