Descrizione

3 vols., 8vo., First Edition, with numerous plates; cloth (red/brown/green respectively), gilt backs, a near fine set in unclipped dustwrapper. With personal bookplate on front paste-down of first volume. The set comprises: 'War Diary 1913-1917. Chronicle of Youth'. Edited by Alan Bishop with Terry Smart [With a Preface by Clare Leighton], (1981); 'Diary of the Thirties 1932-1939. Chronicle of Friendship'. Edited by Alan Bishop, (1986); 'Diary 1939-1945. Wartime Chronicle'. Edited by Alan Bishop & Y. Aleksandra Bennett, (1989). Brittain's Great War diary is the basis of her classic 'Testament of Youth'; among the deeply moving entries are those recording the loss of her fiance Roland Leighton (at Hebuterne, December 1915) and the loss of the 'Lusitania'. Clare Leighton, the eminent illustrator and engraver who contributes the preface, is Roland Leighton's sister. The Thirties saw the publication of 'Testament of Youth', with Brittain mourning her dead and fearing the coming of the second onslaught. During the Second World War she increases her pacifist activities, primarily through the Peace Pledge Union, and delivers a vivid account of life at home during the Blitz.