The Wizard Of Whirlaw. Holt, William.

FIRST EDITION. Half title. Orig. grey cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Orange & black d.w., unclipped; rubbed & a little chipped. Author inscription 'from my saddlebag at the Royal Oak, Alderley Edge, William Holt, 10 Mar 1962' on leading f.e.p. Published by the author, dustjacket by Ivan Cuba. William Holt, 1897-1977, was an adventurer, autodidact, activist, and eccentric. The son of a coal merchant, he pioneered the idea of mobile libraries and became West Yorkshire's only Communist Town Councillor. Peripatetic in his later years, he declared his self-published books 'backpack editions'. In his lifetime he was praised by J.B. Priestley, H.G. Wells, and Ted Hughes; the latter wrote 'For Billy Holt' in his honour. The Wizard of Whirlaw is a romance of the Calder Valley, with a mystical atmosphere in which 'the mills echo to the hammers that are smashing the cotton looms. this time it is the masters, not the men, who are breaking up the machines'. The novel gives its name to a large stone head sculpture in Todmorden, Holt's home town.