"The Garden of Eden" by Blanche Willis Howard, published by Scribner's, New York, 1900. First Edition with '1900' imprinted on the title page and copyright. [Reference: TEG. Wright III, 5414. A novel. No.3141 in "Toward a Feminist Tradition: an Annotated Bibliography of Novels in English by Women 1891-1920"]

Hard boards, original publisher's cloth, decorated front board and spine, gold lettering on spine, 5.1/2" x 7.3/4"; stamp of John Griff Edwards on the front endpaper and title page, 444 pages + publisher's ad, gold upper page edges, other edges untrimmed, some foxing, very good condition.

"Adam and Eve, having seen for weeks that the little tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, approached and hung about it tentatively."

"A modern 'problem story' - How shall the seventh commandment be accepted? The problem, however, is not all. There are many minor matters introduced in the working out of the story, all executed with charming artistry and fidelity to truth." [review]

Blanche Willis Howard (1847-1898) was a best-selling American novelist who lived most of her productive years in southern Germany. Howard published 9 novels. "The Garden of Eden" is her last novel.

Following publication of "One Summer," Howard went to Europe, having received an assignment from the Boston Evening Transcript for a series of articles. Her articles were subsequently published as the travel book One Year Abroad (Boston, 1877). Howard settled in Stuttgart, Germany and continued to write, producing novels, short fiction, poems, and essays. For two years, she was editor of Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, an English-language magazine first edited by the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath.

To supplement her income, Howard supervised the education of American girls in Stuttgart. Among her students were the three daughters of the actor Lawrence Barrett and the two daughters of Harriet Hubbard Ayer, founder of the cosmetics and patent medicine company Recamier Manufacturing. In 1890, Howard married Baron Julius von Teuffel, a court physician to King Charles I of Württemberg, thereby becoming the Baroness von Teuffel. She died in Munich in 1898.

Provenance:

From the library of John Griff Edwards, Portsmouth, Virginia. His stamp is on the front endpaper and title page.

John Griff Edwards (1870-1912) belonged to the old established settler families in Virginia. His father and uncles served in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. The grandfather, LeRoy Griffin Edwards (1804-1866), was the president of the Confederate Convention of 1864. John's wife, Mrs. J. Griff Edwards founded and led the first of the United Confederate Choirs of America (1907). After that she was elected the "Commander in Chief of the United Confederate Choirs." In 1911 she published a volume titled "Echoes From Dixie A Collection of Songs Used in the South."

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