Mother

First edition, first impression.  316pp, with portrait plate frontispiece. Printed on heavy laid paper.  Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on spine.  Top text block edge sprayed blue.  8vo.  Cloth a little worn, gently rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, a few mild marks. Text block edges a little toned.  Small nick at top of front free endpaper. Some faint spotting on first and last few pages else internally neat, clean and tight. Biography of Mary Benson written by her son, the novelist E F Benson. Mary 'Minnie' Benson (nee Sidgwick) (1841-1918) was  a Victorian hostess, wife of the archbishop of Canterbury, Edward Benson.  She had six children including the writer A C Benson (who among other things wrote the words for 'Land of Hope and Glory', novelist E F Benson - best remembered for his Mapp and Lucia novels - and the cleric and popular novelist Robert Benson.  After her husband's death in 1896 she set up home with her long-term friend Lucy Tait who had been living with the family for some years, shocking Victorian social values.  Prime Minister William Gladstone described her as the 'cleverest woman in Europe'.