RUDING, Walt. An Evil Motherhood. An Impressionist Novel.

Oedipal Insanity

RUDING, Walt. An Evil Motherhood. An Impressionist Novel. London: Elkin Mathews. 1896 (but November 1895).

8vo. Publisher’s blue cloth, spiderweb blocked in pale blue to upper board, spine and upper board lettered in gilt; lithographic frontispiece by Beardsley (see below), halftone first-issue frontispiece (titled ‘Swan Electric Engraving Company’ at foot) by Beardsley loosely inserted; pp. [x], 99, [1], 20 (advertisements); slight fading to spine lettering, upper hinge cracked; slight toning to upper margin; but a very good copy, partly uncut.

First edition, third issue, of the only known work by the mysterious Walter Ruding, following a son whose mother unjustly has him committed to an insane asylum, with the suppressed first-issue frontispiece loosely inserted.

Little is known of Ruding (1870–1895): he attended Christ’s Hospital School and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1889 but left before sitting his exams; he was married to Edith Johnstone (author of A Sunless Heart and protégée of W.T. Stead) for less than a month, and died in December 1895. The present work was published a month before his death with a post-dated title-page. The only trace of his existence known to Samuels Lasner ‘consists of the inscribed copies of [An Evil Motherhood] and Beardsley’s request, in January 1896, for the publisher to send him a copy of “Mr. Ruding’s book”’.

The protagonist of the present work ‘cannot make anything of his life even after his release because of his uncontrollably morbid temperament […] Using the language of romantic love rather than filial piety, the novel envisions a possible happy ending in which the hero will reunite with his mother and redeem her. ‘The book represents something of a plea for a sensitive but impractical nature from an author who seems to have worried a good deal about the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness’ (Harsh, A Sunless Heart (2008, introduction), p. 15). The frontispiece intended for the book was Beardsley’s ‘Black Coffee’ drawing (known also as ‘Café Noir’), conceived for the polemical fifth volume of The Yellow Book~ (April 1895). As Oscar Wilde had been arrested for indecency mid-publication, Beardsley was implicated in the scandal and John Lane had no choice but to authorise Beardsley’s dismissal. Beardsley wrote to Smithers around 10 November 1895 that ‘the dreadful thing was a blaze up with Lane-cum-Mathews, and a drawing to be produced at the sword’s point’ (Letters, p. 104). Beardsley was forced at once to produce the frontispiece to the present issue, by some accounts a portrait of Ruding, who sits sullenly in an armchair wearing slippers, his book cast to the floor, whilst his mother stands over him disapprovingly.

Only six or twelve review copies were issued with the ‘Black Coffee’ frontispiece bound in; our copy has the substitute ‘Portrait of the Author’ frontispiece and the halftone ‘Black Coffee’ frontispiece loosely inserted.

Gertner Zatlin 922 and 965; Gallatin 975; Samuels Lasner 94; Vallance 135.

SKU: 2125404