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EXCEEDINGLY RARE IN
DUST JACKET
 [GREENE,
GRAHAM; MATHEWS, RONALD]. COUSINS, SHEILA.
To Beg I am Ashamed
"Because I was born a lady and still
look one, 'How on earth do you come to be doing this?' is the first
question most men ask me when they pick me up on the streets. I came to
be a prostitute for many reasons,
but in the end because I deliberately chose to be."
FIRST EDITION, in very rare
dust jacket, of Graham Greene’s and Ronald Mathews’s collaboration on this alleged “Authentic
Autobiography of a London Prostitute” (published under the pseudonym
Sheila Cousins).
Because it was recalled almost immediately after publication, the
first edition of To Beg I am Ashamed is extremely scarce(particularly
in dust jacket) .
“In the mid-1930s Greene and Ronald Mathews met at a literary party in
London and soon discovered that they shared at least two major
interests. One was a curiosity about exotic lands … and the other was an
unusually strong passion for prostitutes … Apparently these two literary
“cousins” cooked up the idea of writing (Sheila) Cousins’s story”
(Michael Sheldon, Graham Greene: The Man Within). The manuscript
was submitted to Routledge & Sons by Greene’s agents, the contract was
signed by Mathews. The publication of the book elicited wide
condemnation; the editor of the Daily Mail was particularly stern,
writing that “it’s effect on the young and impressionable who may read
it cannot fail to be debasing and demoralizing” (quoted in Sheldon, pg.
210). Routledge & Sons responded by quickly recalling all unsold copies
from booksellers; hence the extreme scarcity of copies of the first
edition. In 1953 a new edition appeared and, in the spirit of taking his
literary hoax one step further, Graham Greene himself gave it a highly
favorable review in the New Statesman, going so far as to single out a
few phrases (clearly by his own hand) which he found especially
praiseworthy.
London: George Routledge &
Sons Ltd., 1938. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket; custom
half-leather box. Book near-fine with some foxing to outer edge of text
block; cloth exceptionally clean. Extremely rare unrestored dust jacket
with chipping to spine ends and corners; toning to spine, and scattered
foxing. $15,000. |
