GREENWOOD, Edwin. Old Goat. London:William Heinemann Ltd. 1937.
8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the illustrated dustwrapper (uncredited) priced 3s. 6d. net to spine; pp. [8], 343, [1]; light spotting to page block edges and wrapper, rubbed and nicked to wrapper extremities; a very good or better copy of this uncommon volume, the binding square and firm, the cloth fresh, the scarce wrapper sharp and complete.
An attractive copy of this scarce satire of totalitarian power and dictatorship dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock.
Edwin Greenwood (1895-1939) always had distinguished connections. His first book, Skin and Bone (1934) (entitled The Deadly Dowager in the US) included a foreword by Arthur Machen, no less, who counted Greenwood among those writers "who have a story to tell and are not ashamed to tell it", asserting that Greenwood’s novel “compounded on the true and ancient recipe: mix[ing] murder and mirth with immense spirit and success". In his introduction to a recent reissue of that work, Mark Valentine notes that Greenwood may have known Machen “through theatrical circles – Machen and his wife […] had been actors […], and Greenwood was an early filmmaker, director and actor”. It is an explanation which may also elucidate Greenwood’s connection to the dedicatee of Old Goat, “ALFRED HITCHCOCK ("HITCH") / Good Maker of Good Pictures / Good Judge of Good Things / Good Friend”.
Described on the title page as a "fantasia on a theme of Blackmail and Sudden Death", Old Goat tells the story of Hubert Beedon (the titular goat), who after unexpectedly inheriting a large estate and a title, is “filled with his own importance and the fact that his talents have gone unrecognised […], determines to assert himself and to follow in the footsteps of a modern dictator.” (from the jacket). A satirical parable and attack on all forms of political and religious dictatorship, the novel was topical at the time and, unfortunately, remains so today.
SKU: 2123285