First Edition, First Impression. Large octavo, pp. 88. Illustrated throughout with 28 striking, full-page avant-garde line drawings by Wyndham Lewis. Original half black cloth over grey paper-covered boards, front board and spine lettered in silver. An important modernist "reverse collaboration," where Mitchison specifically drafted the surrealist text to fit a series of pre-existing drawings provided to her by Lewis. Condition Report:
Book: Very Good. Binding remains firm, square, and structurally sound. The silver lettering on the spine and front board is bright and unrubbed. The grey paper boards show only light, uniform toning at the extreme edges. Internally bright, crisp, and clean. Completely free from foxing, offsetting, prior ownership inscriptions, or bookplates.
Dust Jacket: Good. Original, unclipped dust jacket (showing the 7s. 6d. net price). The jacket shows some loss at the extremities, specifically chipping to the head and tail of the spine panel and minor wear to the corner tips. Spine panel is somewhat sunned, but the bold front cover design remains clear and highly presentable.
An attractive, internally pristine copy of a scarce 1930s avant-garde collaboration, very difficult to find with the original dust jacket intact. Beyond This Limit" is a landmark piece of 1930s avant-garde book design, serving as a rare cross-disciplinary bridge between the Vorticist art movement and experimental feminist literature. Collectors target this specific volume for three main reasons:
The Unique "Reverse" Collaboration: Instead of an artist illustrating an author's text, Wyndham Lewis handed Naomi Mitchison a suite of 28 surreal drawings, and she wrote the dream-like narrative specifically to accompany his imagery.
Wyndham Lewis's Artistic Genius: As the founder of Vorticism (Britain's answer to Futurism and Cubism), Lewis's book illustrations from this era are highly prized. The 28 full-page drawings in this volume represent some of his finest, most striking commercial line-work.
Extreme Scarcity in Jacket: While the book itself appears on the market occasionally, finding it inside the fragile, original unclipped dust jacket is exceptionally rare. In the antiquarian book market, the presence of this jacket multiplies the book's value significantly.
