Mazo De La Roche Whiteoak Novels -- Set of Six 1946

Books : Fiction

 

The Whiteoak Novels of Mazo De La Roche, Published by By Little Brown, Boston, 1946 (later printings)

I have only ever had a set of three of these and without the dustjackets, so to find six WITH jackets was a treat, as the jackets are elusive indeed. These are lovely books with very clean light green boards and only light toning to pages. Jackets are also lightly toned at spines, but paper is crisp on all and none have been price-clipped. Only one shows a few small tears to tail of spine and all are protected by brand new mylar.

The set is comprised of six of the 16 novels -- numbers two, three, six, seven, eight and nine. When found with jackets they usually sell for about $30 each which means the partial set is priced well below that.

Mazo de la Rouche is a fascinating Canadian author whose books remain not only readable, but engaging. Jalna, the first book in the series, won the Atlantic Monthly writing contest in 1927, making its author famous at the age of 48. Not only was it published, but she also received a cash award of ten thousand dollars -- a lot of money then! Jalna proved so popular that de la Rouche ended up writing a whopping 16 books in the series, which together tell the story of 100 years (1854-1954) in the lives of the wealthy Whiteoak family. The idea sprang from a period in her own life when her family lived on the farm of a wealthy landowner who farmed as a hobby.

De la Roche is still a celebrated Canadian author, so much so that a school has been named for her in London, Ontario, as have several streets which bear names from the Jalna books. Because de la Roche was so adept at concealing her personal life from her fans there has been much speculation about it, a topic which prompted Joan Gevner's biography, "Mazo; the Hidden Life." Mazo wrote her own autobiography earlier entitled "Ringing the Changes."

Item ID: RL2003

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