The Lost Traveller Antonia White 1953 Third Impression Dust Jacket
 
Title & Bibliographic Details
The Lost Traveller By Antonia White
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (Publishers), Ltd., 1953.
Third Impression, as stated on the inner flap of the original dust jacket. The jacket records that the novel was first published in 1950, reprinted in 1950, and first issued in Eyre & Spottiswoode's Popular Fiction Series in 1953. The first edition was published in 1950. 
Printed by Fletcher & Son Ltd., Norwich, and bound by The Leighton-Straker Bookbinding Co. Ltd., London.
314 pages, complete.
 
Literary & Historical Context
The Lost Traveller was first published in 1950 and was Antonia White's second novel, following Frost in May (1933). It continues the autobiographical story begun in Frost in May, although White deliberately changed the name of her heroine from Nanda Grey to Clara Batchelor and reshaped the material as what she considered a more conventional novel. White herself explained that “Clara is a continuation of Nanda”. 
The novel follows Clara as she leaves the convent of her childhood and enters a wider, more secular world. Set against the background of the First World War, it explores adolescence, family relationships, Catholic faith, independence and the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood. 
The Lost Traveller is the first of the three novels that continue the story after Frost in May, followed by The Sugar House (1952) and Beyond the Glass (1954). Together with Frost in May, these four novels form the celebrated quartet linked by their central heroine. 
The work is of particular interest to collectors of twentieth-century women's literature and autobiographical fiction. Its original 1950 publication followed a seventeen-year gap after Frost in May, and the novel provides an important bridge between White's celebrated early work and the later novels of the Clara Batchelor sequence. 
For this particular copy, the 1953 Third Impression and its original Maeve Gilmore dust jacket are significant. The jacket preserves contemporary publishing material and contemporary critical notices, while the printed note that the book was first issued in Eyre & Spottiswoode's Popular Fiction Series in 1953 helps document this later issue.
 
About the Author
Antonia White (1899–1980), born Eirene Adeline Botting, was an English novelist and translator. She is best known for Frost in May and the sequence of autobiographical novels that followed it. She also translated numerous works from French, including books by Colette. 
 
About the Dust-Jacket Designer: Maeve Gilmore
Maeve Gilmore (1917–1983) was a British painter, sculptor, writer and illustrator. She studied at the Westminster School of Art, where she met the writer and artist Mervyn Peake, whom she married in 1937. Her own artistic practice was influenced by European modernism and Surrealism, and she exhibited in London during her lifetime. 
Gilmore's work has increasingly received recognition in its own right, having been the subject of institutional exhibitions and reassessment as an important British artist of her period. She was also the author of A World Away, her memoir of life with Mervyn Peake. 
For this copy of The Lost Traveller, Gilmore's original dust-jacket design is an especially attractive feature. Specialist bookseller descriptions of the 1950 first edition also specifically identify the jacket artwork as being by Maeve Gilmore. 
 
Binding & Exterior Condition
Binding: Original blue cloth over the boards and spine, with gilt lettering to the spine.
The boards are intact and robust, with only light cosmetic wear consistent with age and use. There are some patches of fading, most noticeably to the spine, together with light edge wear, small or light marks and very soft bumping to the corners. The binding remains sound and presents well beneath the original dust jacket.
 
Original Dust Jacket
The book retains its original unclipped dust jacket, designed by Maeve Gilmore, with the original 5s. net price sticker retained on the inside of the inner flap. The jacket is intact but shows some age-related wear, including several small edge tears, foxing to the spine and some small or light marks. Despite these imperfections, the survival of the original jacket is an important feature of this copy.
 
Interior Condition
The pages are lightly tanned, with very light foxing to the preliminary leaves. The text block is otherwise particularly neat and clean, with predominantly uncreased pages.
There are only occasional very light marks and a couple of small creases, none affecting the text. There are no page tears.
A pencil note on the front free endpaper reads “(in Maeve Gilmore d/wrapper)”, apparently referring to the jacket design. There are also a couple of tiny red-ink dots to the reverse of the front free endpaper.
The binding remains firm and tightly bound, with all pages secure.
 
Completeness & Physical Details
Pages: 314, complete and checked
Dimensions: approximately 20.2 × 14 × 3 cm
Weight: approximately 410 g
Dust Jacket: Original, unclipped.
 
Collector's Summary
An attractive 1953 Third Impression of Antonia White's The Lost Traveller, retaining its original unclipped Maeve Gilmore dust jacket. The book itself is clean and firmly bound, while the jacket preserves an important piece of the book's original publishing and design history.