The Radium Woman. DOORLY (Eleanor).

PRESENTATION COPY WITH ACCOMPANYING LETTER

Radium Woman: A Youth Edition of the Life of Madame Curie.

Illustrated with woodcuts by Robert Gibbings.

First edition. 8vo. [203 x 144 x 25 mm]. [6]ff, 184 pp. Bound in the publisher's original mauve cloth, the rear cover blocked with a blind impression of the publisher's logo, the spine lettered in white, plain endpapers. Lacking dust jacket. (Spine lightly faded, the covers a touch soiled).

London: William Heinemann, 1939

Very faint ink offset on page 95, otherwise text block clean. Overall a good copy.

Inscribed to the front fly leaf: "Grace Chatwin, with love from the writer, Eleanor Doorly". Accompanied by a letter stapled to the front fly leaf, dated September 3rd. "Dearest Grace, Thank you so much for the involuntary loan of these books. I was sure you wouldn't mind. I hope you have had a good holiday. I hope to start tomorrow and that Hitler won't interfere with my getting back. Oh that it could be fine! With love, Eleanor". (It should be noted that Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on this very day, September 3rd 1939).

The V&A was gifted by Grace Chatwin in memory of Eleanor Doorly a woodcut by Robert Gibbings from this same publication.

The Radium Woman was adapted by Eleanor Doorly from the 1937 biography of the scientist Marie Curie by her daughter Eve Curie. It won the fourth annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject, an award that only a handful of nonfiction books have ever won.

Stock no. ebc9211