FAR - BLAKELOCK, Denys - Eleanor : Portrait of a Farjeon - (1st Edition Hardcover in Wrapper)

1966 First Edition published by Victor Gollancz - Book Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good and uncliped (25/- net ) - 160 pg. - Blue boards, gilt lettering, - Departure from the usual yellow Gollancz jackets as this one is pale blue with white lettering & black decoration. - Portrait frontispiece of Eleanor in her studio. - Did belong to a library before but was only issued 6 times to decent readers.   >>>   Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire.  Some of her correspondence has also been published.   >>>   Poet and celebrated children's book writer Eleanor Farjeon was born into an artistic family: her father was a novelist and her mother was the daughter of the American actor Joseph Jefferson. Farjeon's family home was a literary and artistic hub.   >>>   Eleanor Farjeon is described as been small, shy and quiet, and she wore glasses from the age of eight. Her parents contributed much to her career as a writer and poet. Her father was a successful writer and novelist and is described as being very high spirited and enthusiastic with life. Maggie (Jefferson) Farjeon, her mother, was the daughter of a well known American actor. "Nellie" (as she was affectionately called by her parents) would later care for her dying mother through a lingering and painful illness of twelve years. She had three brothers: (1878-1948) (who became a composer), (1883-1955)(who was a writer) and (1887-1945)(who was a major figure in the British theatre); she was 2nd in rank in the family.   -   In her childhood, she was "home schooled" and she loved books, perhaps her frequent headaches and colds were contributed to by the dust of the "little bookroom" - an attic space piled with books. She was encouraged by her father to write from age of five, and did the lyrics for an operetta composed by her brother when she was eighteen. She had a vigorous imaginary life, especially with her older brother Harry (who became a composer). Though very shy and emotionally immature into her thirties, she was well acquainted with a circle of talented artists, writers and musicians.   -   She had two significant "loves" in her early years, one an infatuation with Stacy Aumonier, the other a friendship with the Poet - both married men for whom she wrote a series of sonnets (published as First & Second Love by Micheal Joseph in 1947). She never married, but had a contented thirty year relationship with an English teacher, George Earle (known as "Pod"), and after his death in 1949, a long friendship with actor , who wrote a memoir, Portrait of a Farjeon.        * Authors *