The Sword in the Stone

By T. H. White

First edition, first impression: London: Collins, 1938.

Original black cloth, the spine lettered in white. With line drawings by the author. In the original dust jacket, with a black-and-cream design of heraldic shields across both panels and the spine, the rear flap quoting critics on White’s "England Have My Bones".

A very good copy. A few faint marks to the upper and lower boards and light spotting to the edges of the text block; a previous owner’s name to the front endpaper. Some spotting to the opening and closing few leaves, with one or two spots here and there throughout; the contents otherwise largely clean.

The original dust jacket, neatly price-clipped, very good: a sliver of loss to the head and foot of the spine panel, shallow chipping to the corners and some browning to the spine panel; a couple of nicks to the top edge of the upper panel, and two tears to the bottom edge, one with some associated creasing.

The first of White’s Arthurian novels, published by Collins as a stand-alone work. It takes up the boyhood of Arthur, which Malory passes over, following the Wart through his education under Merlyn, who changes him into a succession of animals. The text was partially rewritten for the American edition published by Putnam, and substantially revised when it became the first part of The Once and Future King (1958), which added the episodes of the ants and the geese and removed others, among them Merlyn’s battle with Madam Mim. Disney’s animated film of 1963, Mim included, was based on this original text. A six-part dramatisation for BBC radio, with music by Benjamin Britten, followed in 1939.