Canada (The British Commonwealth in Pictures) by TWEEDSMUIR, Lady [Susan] - 1941

Penns in the Rocks Press/ William Collins of London, 1941. Good. FIRST EDITION. SIGNED BY AUTHOR to ffep: 'Susan Tweedsmuir' plus dedication slip and facsimile signature from P. J. Montague, Major-General Senior Officer, thanking friends at the Universities of Oxford and London on 'behalf of the Canadian Army Overseas' (Sept. 1942). Bookplate of Helena Clara Deneke to front pastedown. Large 8vo, pp. [48] + colour plates and b/w illustrations. Illustrated paper boards. Spine cocked, wear and nicks to head of spine, bruising to spine ends and bottom corners. Some spotting to boards, edges and plates, else, text block bright and clean. Spine cracked at pp.24-25 and pp.40-41, but binding holding firm. In frayed original DJ - tanned, worn, particularly front panel, with two patches of offsetting from an external text source. Like her husband John Buchan, First Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, Susan Tweedsmuir (1882 1977) was an author; she was key to the foundation of public libraries in the Canadian prairies and had a hand in establishing the Governor General's Awards. A prominent Oxford Germanist & Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Deneke (1878 1973) was central to the development of democratic women's organisations in Germany post-WWII, co-producing the influential report, 'The Women of Germany' (1947) with Betty Norris. She was Treasurer of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies until 1918. Both Tweedsmuir and Deneke were active members of Elsfield Women's Institute, and traveled across Canada together following Deneke's retirement in 1938. An interesting association copy, which bears witness to the friendship of two extraordinary women who shaped post-war education in the West.