Heritage. SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita.

Signed by the author on the title page and inscribed to her mother, the dedicatee, on the dedication page, "M.B.B.M." ["My Beloved Bonne Maman"]; with Lady Sackville's bookplate and ownership inscription on the front endpapers: "My own copy, first edition of this binding, Oct. 1927". Vita Sackville-West's debut novel was first published in 1919 in red cloth. Above the ownership inscription is a clipping of reviews, perhaps mounted by Lady Sackville herself, who often made such interventions in acquisitions to her library, and who acted as the work's publicist on its first publication. This provenance resonates strongly with the novel: the main character, "a woman torn in her temperament between her English and Spanish heritage", is the author's self-portrait, whereas the work's "dashing, gipsy-like hero" grandmother (Orlando) is based on VSW's grandmother Pepita (1830-1872). This was the stage name of Lady Sackville's mother, the Romani dancer Josefa Durán y Ortega, whose Spanish traits VSW often thought she had inherited. In this book, VSW explores "her own history through metaphors of genetic determinism" (ODNB), seeing "the Spanish side of her nature as passionate and perverse and the English side of her nature as caring and controlled" (Orlando). Intergenerational legacies were deeply important to VSW and she returned to the theme in her writings many times after this debut work, including in her memorable evocation of her mother and grandmother, Pepita (1937). Upon the publication of Heritage, "B.M. wholeheartedly took up her role as publicist again, [writing] '157 letters mentioning it to shops and friends'. That very night mother and daughter had what Vita described as 'an extraordinary conversation' that went on until two o'clock in the morning. 'She has tumbled to the whole thing, I'm so glad'" (Glendinning, p. 103). Its success led VSW's husband Harold Nicolson to tease her that they could now no longer sell their home of Long Barn because "it would soon be a historic monument safeguarded by 'The Vita Sackville-West Society'" (ibid.) The rear free endpaper of this copy is pencilled "from sale at Long Barn June 1st 1944", suggesting that the book returned to VSW's possession when her mother died in 1936 and then left her hands once again in anticipation of the sale of the Long Barn estate in 1945. This copy is in a binding variant, recorded by Cross and Ravenscroft-Hulme. It was also issued in mustard cloth with gilt spine lettering. Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A4c. Victoria Glendinning, Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West, 1985. Duodecimo. Original light brown cloth, green paper spine label, top edge gilt. Ticket of the Times Book Club on rear pastedown. Lean to spine, bright cloth slightly rumpled at edges, occasional later pencil annotations: a very good copy.