We are not Alone

Macmillan and Co. London: Macmillan and Co., 1937 8vo., burgundy cloth, lettered in gilt to upper board and spine, in the charming pictorial dust jacket designed by Bip Pares (6'-net); pp. [iv], 218, [ii]; a fine copy, with a couple of miniscule marks to prelims; jacket near-fine, very mildly shelf-worn with the spine a touch creased to head but retaining all of its brightness; a lovely example.  First edition.  We Are Not Alone has been compared to Goodbye, Mr Chips in its sombre depiction of discrimination in the build-up to the First World War. Set in the fictional English factory town of Calderbury, it follows the lives of the village surgeon, David Newcome, and his fateful relationship with Leni, a German dancer.  Little is known about Pares, the illustrator of so many eye-catching dust jackets produced in the 1930s and 40s. Born in 1904, Ethel Pares studied at the Slade in the 1920s before becoming a commercial artist, producing illustrations and posters for London Transport before turning to dust jacket design. Most of her work is done in a highly commercial art-deco style, limited to two or three colours. She is purported to have produced over 600 examples over the course of her lifetime. A near-fine copy in this vibrant dust jacket.   . Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 1937.