"Gallows' Orchard" by Claire Spencer, published by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, New York, stated First American Edition, April, 1930.

Hard boards, original double cloth binding: red boards and black spine with red lettering [bright spots-- lost color on boards, and a little shelf wear]; 5.1/4" x 7.1/2"; black endpapers with red decorations; 285 pages on heavy stock paper, very good condition.

This dark, haunting tragedy "Gallows' Orchard" was Claire Spencer's first book. Listed as a marginal mystery in Hubin, the novel tells of a girl whose fearlessness antagonizes the Scottish village she lives in, entangling murder, marriage, birth and death into the mix.

"In Gallows' Orchard, "marriage and child birth and death take on distorted forms for Effie Gallows. Her neighbors loathe and fear her, and eventually the village children stone her to death." It was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. (Times says, "Book-of-the-Month selectors defend their choice by comparing Gallows' Orchard to the work of the late great Robert Louis Stevenson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Hardy.")" [a private review]

Claire Spencer (1895-1987) was a Scottish-born novelist who emigrated to the United States. "Gallows' Orchard" is her first book. It is the story of a girl whose fearlessness antagonizes the little village in Scotland which is her home, of her effect upon the three men who love her, entangling murder, marriage, birth and death into the mix.

The American publishing house Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith existed for four years before going bankrupt. Jonathan Cape kept going in the UK, going on to publish, among many others, Ian Fleming; today it is an imprint of Vintage Publishing UK, owned by Random House.

US: Priority (c.2-4 days) ---------- $12.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-6 weeks) ---- $32.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ----- $48.50