Descripción
Spine slightly rubbed at foot, corner of lower cover slightly stained, free endpapers partially embrowned, text pages embrowning from edges; dustwrapper darkened and slightly frayed at spine, a little dusty and rubbed at edges (apparently a late-issue dustwrapper, quoting numerous press reviews). The frontispiece unsigned, but with the author's inscription on the front free endpaper, "To Mr J Grist from Mrs Violet Van der Elst". A polemic against capital punishment: "I feel sure that the day will soon come when we will see the Sun of human sympathy and understanding shine in those dark places of this world's laws: laws which, carried over from barbaric and primitive ages, have no place amongst civilised peoples." Van der Elst's book is humane but, in certain respects, deeply eccentric. "Murders are generally committed by very poor people," she writes, "for it is they who are the victims of evil environment and disease. One never or seldom hears of a rich man being prosecuted for murder. If he is ill mentally or physically, or if he has some nervous disease, his doctor can look after him and make him well. But this is not the case with the poor man; he must often bear his illness until it overthrows his self-control and he becomes mentally unbalanced. The rich man has all he desires when he is ill; money acts like a magician. It may not always bring happiness. but it can buy most things." The frontispiece shows a woman who could buy most things. Violet Van der Elst (née Violet Anne Dodge, 1882-1966), author, composer, artist, campaigner, a formidably solid figure in jewels and furs, leans her arm languidly on an opulent escritoire, her eyes firmly on the camera. From humble origins, she had achieved great wealth, running her own cosmetic business and inventing Shavex cream, "The Miraculous Quick Shave WITH NO SOAP OR BRUSH". This book, like The Torture Chamber and Other Stories, which appeared three months earlier, is self-published: plain-spoken, a mixture of memoir (reminiscences of demonstrations she has mounted down the years, of court cases she has witnessed, murderers seen), anecdote (of motivations and executions) and argument, always argument. Photographs of crowds and criminals are alternated with pictures of herself (now in a studio, now resting on the running board of her Rolls-Royce, now being arrested by the police) and views of the grand country pile, Grantham Castle (aka Harlaxton Manor), "home of Mrs. Van der Elst", where the book was written. Over three pages she lists opponents to the death sentence, starting with Christ. Her reasoning is sensible (she understands, for example, the effects of what is now called PTSD) and she is never unafraid of statistics. She concludes with the reflection that if there were a universal language there would be no wars, and an exhortation: "The English race is said to be better than others because it is a mixture. Then let the whole world mix, and let us all be one nation, one race." Her dustwrapper flaps are thick with press reviews. "Mrs. Van der Elst, in writing to the Bishops to support her in her Campaign against the Death Sentence, wrote twenty letters to the Bishops and Archbishops. In 'On the Gallows' she prints their replies. The Archbishop of York was the only one who was on her side" (Daily Herald). "Every page, almost, is a thriller. There are many interesting photographs" (World's Press News). N° de ref. del artículo 5eB100032
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