The Soul of A Bishop; frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert [Clara Irene Shively Knight provenance]

New York: Macmillan Company, 1917. Hardcover. Very Good. Published September, 1917. [8], 341, [11] p.; color frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert; 20 cm. Publisher's red rib-grain cloth with gilt-stamped spine and cover titles. No dust jacket. Publisher's advertisements for other books by Wells on verso of half title and on unpaginated pages following text. First American edition. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "Clara I. Knight, Akron, Ohio, October 25th 1917." Clara Irene Shively Knight (d. 1965) was the wife of Charles Landon Knight (1867-1933), publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal for more than two decades. Her sons, John Shively Knight (1894-1981) and James Landon Knight (1909-1991), founded the Knight-Ridder newspaper empire and established the Knight Memorial Education Fund. During World War I, John S. Knight joined the army; his mother, Clara, was reading this book when she went to see him in January 1918 before he left for Europe and she made several marginal notations, primarily in pencil, both about her efforts to see her son and about the book. She also underlined a few passages in pencil. While reacting to her son's sudden enlistment in the Army, Clara I. Knight is reading Well's novel about an English bishop struggling with his faith during the First World War while suffering from insomnia and nicotine withdrawal. In Very Good Condition: corners and ends of spine lightly rubbed; slightly cocked; a few pages opened carelessly, not impacting text; other than Clara I. Knight's notations, clean and tight.