Suffragettes: Vera L. Holme & Emmeline Pankhurst

Suffragettes

Lucas (E. V.) The Open Road, twelfth edition, inscribed and dated 1908 by Vera L. Holme to flyleaf, with a 2pp. handwritten poem in pencil ‘Loch Tay Boat Song’, loosely inserted, on paper with the header of Arvorlich House, Holme’s bookplate designed by Jessie Marion King to front pastedown, 1907 § Service (Robert W.) Songs of a Sourdough, inscribed to Vera L. Holme from her brother to front free endpaper: “To Dearest old Vee from Gordon. Easter 1916.”, with her bookplate and ink stamp, thirtieth impression, original cloth gilt § Pankhurst (Emmeline) My Own Story, First American edition, 16 photographic plates including frontispiece, some spotting to frontispiece, original cloth, portrait label of the author to upper board, discoloured, some surface marking, New York, Hearst’s International Library, 1914 § Bax (Clifford, ed.) Florence Farr, Bernard Shaw, W B Yeats: Letters, First edition, signed and dated 1948 by Holme to the front free endpaper, original cloth gilt, 1946 § Pallister (Minnie) The Orange-Box: Thoughts of a Socialist Propagandist, second impression, signed by the author to front free endpaper, original printed boards, soiled, new cloth spine, Leonard Parsons, 1924; v.s., with another volume featuring Holme’s bookplate and a volume inscribed by the Suffragette prisoner Flora J. Till (7)

***Vera Holme, also known as Jack Holme, was the Pankhursts’ chauffeur and was known for cross-dressing. Her papers are significant for the insight they provide into lesbian lives during the interwar period.