Constance Lytton: 'Prisons & Prisoners. Some Personal Experi...

Hammer

£320

Constance Lytton: 'Prisons & Prisoners. Some Personal Experiences by Constance Lytton and Jane Walton, Spinster', London, William Heinemann, 1914, 1st edition, two portrait plates of the author in both guises as called for, 16pp publisher's catalogue of adverts at end, original publisher's purple cloth with WSPU motif by Sylvia Pankhurst on front cover. Scarce first edition of the remarkable autobiography of the aristocratic suffragette Constance Lytton, recounting her remarkable masquerade and imprisonment as the working-class seamstress 'Jane Warton'.
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton, to give her her full name, was the grand-daughter of the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and although her family was very influential, she rejected completely her background and joined the WSPU. She was arrested four times, and under the name of Constance Lytton she was given preferential treatment and privileges; she was not forcilbly fed when she went on hunger strike, and was soon released. However, when she went to Liverpool under the name of 'Jane Warton', she was arrested, forcibly fed, and her health was permanently damaged.