RICHARDSON, Henry Handel. Christkindleins Wiegenlied. An Old German Carol Set to Music.

Arranged by an Australian Longing for Germany

RICHARDSON, Henry Handel. Christkindleins Wiegenlied. An Old German Carol Set to Music. London: Shenval Press for Ulysses Press Ltd. Christmas 1931.

8vo. Publisher’s screen-printed stiff wrappers, printed label to upper wrapper; pp. [1 (blank)], 7; text in German and English; slight sunning to spine and inner upper corners; very light foxing to endpapers; else a fine copy; limitation leaf numbered and signed ‘Henry Handel Richardson’ by the author, inscription to front free endpaper ‘Christopher | from John + Josephine | Christmas | Beirut | 1961’.

First and only edition, no. 7 of 250 copies on handmade paper and signed by the author, of this translation and new arrangement of a German Christmas carol from Mahler’s Dem Knaben Wunderhorn by Australian novelist Ethel Richardson (1870–1946), published under her pen name, Henry Handel Richardson.

Born in Melbourne, Richardson was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, where she ‘proved to be a good scholar and an exceptional musician; consequently, in 1888 her mother was persuaded to take her and her younger sister, Lilian, to Europe, so that she could continue her musical studies. Except for a very brief visit in 1912 to check details for Richard Mahony, she never saw Australia again’ (ODNB). Richardson studied at the Leipzig conservatory from 1889 to 1892, abandoning her studies following her marriage to J.G. Robertson, the first professor of German at London University and author of A History of German Literature.

This translation and arrangement are evidently the product of Richardson’s love both of Germany – where she lived until 1903 – and of music, perhaps a means of coping with the ‘particularly difficult’ transition from London to Germany: ‘England and London proved much less congenial than Germany and Strasbourg’, and Richardson ‘had no small talk, and ditherers or chatterers would find themselves facing scrutinizing intelligent eyes and silence. However, given the opportunity to explore the unorthodox, she flourished. She had a lifelong sceptic’s interest in spiritualism; she loved fast cars; and, as a researching novelist, she enjoyed investigating boxing booths and opium dens’ (ibid.).

This edition was printed and bound by the Shenval Press, founded by James Shand, likewise the founder of the visual arts magazine Motif and, with Robert Harling, co-founder of the journals Typography (1936–1939), Alphabet and Image (1946–1948), and Image (1949–1952).

SKU: 2126409