The Witch

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914. 1914 at title page; Published October, 1914 at copyright. Fine, brown coated full cloth boards, gilt cover design and spine titles, lt. shelf wear, discoloration at bk. brd. Pages very good, clean. Frontispiece color plate w/ tissue by N. C. Wyeth. A solid, clean copy. Mary Johnston was an American writer best known for her historical fiction but many of her works are of supernatural interest and she became interested in mysticism later in her life. In this novel, one of her twenty-three published, Johnston deals with witchcraft, and this represents her earliest foray into the genre. "The Witch," set in England in 1604 shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth, features village doctor Gilbert Aderhold and Joan Heron, a single woman living alone, who must deal with the witch scares and witch hunts rife in England's countryside after the death of the Queen, a situation similar to Salem, MA, later in the century. First page begins: "It was said that the Queen was dying. She lay at Richmond, in the palace looking out upon the wintry, wooded, March-shaken park, but London, a few miles away, had daily news of how she did. There was much talk about her-the old Queen-much telling of stories and harking back. She had had a long reign-Not far from fifty years, my masters!- and in it many important things had happened. The crowd in the streets, the barge and wherry folk upon the wind-ruffled river, the roisterers in the taverns drinking ale or sack, merchants and citizens in general talking of the times in the intervals of business, old soldiers and seaman ashore, all manner of folk, indeed, agreed upon the one most important thing. The most important thing had been the scattering of the Armada fifteen years before." 442 pages.. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book.