The Searcher A War Play. Reading version.Limited first edition.Wood-engravings by Blair Hughes Stanton by Pilcher, Velona - 1929

London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1929. Limited edition of 1,000 copies. Ten wood-engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton. Hardback. 84pp. Blue cloth binding with black titles to spine. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve. The original dust jacket has the following blurb: "The writer is a pioneer. Her work as a writer for the 'Theatre Arts Monthly', as a former director of the Gate Theatre, and now as one of Miss Judith Wogan's associates at the Grafton, is of great interest and importance to the modern stage. Her war play - published in January 1929, a few days after the production of 'Journey's End' - is unlike any of the war plays that have followed. Miss Pilcher does not try to be naturalistic, but imaginatively theatrical. She dramatically presents the machinery of war "not according to machinery's movements, but recording the movement made by such machinery playing on a human heart." No one interested in the new technique in drama should miss this remarkable play. Miss Pilcher is the first English writer to correlate experiments in the art of the theatre into a poetic form, and this purpose has come as somewhat of a challenge to current dramatic criticism." Ten atmospheric wood-engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton. Book in very good condition. Very slight soiling to boards. A little faint toning to endpapers. A nice clean copy. Dust jacket very good and unclipped (price printed on spine). Chipping and slight loss to top of front fold. Light edge wear. Spine slightly faded. Small amount of marking to top of front flap.