(CUSTANCE, Olive). FLETCHER, Joseph Smith. ~ Ballads of Revolt … London and New York: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1897.
Small square 8vo (135 × 104 mm), pp. [6], 42; contemporary green morocco, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, spine lettered gilt; rubbed, some offsetting from the turn-ins.
First edition of an early collection of poetry by Fletcher (1863–1935), perhaps better known for his detective fiction. This copy inscribed by the English poet Olive Custance to the American writer and salonnière Natalie Clifford Barney —‘To Natalie … The Poet and Lover … from the “Little Princess”’— on the front flyleaf.
‘An avid reader of Pre-Raphaelite and aesthetic literature’, in the 1890s, Custance (1874–1944) ‘developed somewhat flirtatious relationships with John Lane, Henry Harland, and Richard Le Gallienne—respectively the publisher, editor, and reader of The Yellow Book. Custance was one of the most prolific women poets published in this notorious journal, with poems appearing in eight of its thirteen volumes …
‘Custance’s first poetry volume, Opals, was published in 1897 by The Bodley Head [the same year as Fletcher’s] … The poems addressed to John Gray were also included in this volume, along with several other love poems directed at ambiguously gendered beloveds. Such sexual ambiguity was reflected in Custance’s love life during this period. In the winter of 1900 she received an admiring letter from Natalie Barney, the openly lesbian author and salon hostess. Custance was invited by Barney to Paris, where she also befriended the symbolist poet Renée Vivien (Barney’s former lover). Accounts of this ménage are contradictory. Barney’s autobiography stated that Vivien was jealous of Custance; however, Vivien’s letters and her roman-à-clef A Woman Appeared to Me (1904)—in which Custance appeared as Dagmar—suggest that she and Custance enjoyed a brief love affair during the winter of 1901
‘During this period, in June 1901, Custance wrote a letter of admiration to Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945). The poets began to correspond, using the personas of “Fairy Prince” for Douglas, and “Princess” and “Page” for Custance’ (Oxford DNB), which may account for the inscription here.