Hidden treasures published between 1930 to 1950 which you enjoyed ?

yoyobon_gw

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Perhaps an odd topic but one that I find myself thinking about when I find a book that delights.

There seem to be many " hidden treasures " between 1930 to 1950.

Here are some which I have enjoyed very much :

With Malice Toward Some - Margaret Halsey 1938

Down The Garden Path - Beverley Nichols 1932

Night Thoughts of a Country Lady - Edith Oliver 1943

I Lost My English Accent - C.V.R. Thompson 1939

Trousers Will Be Worn - C.V.R. Thompson 1941

Great Mischief - Josephine Pinckney 1948

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sheri_z6

6 years ago

Yoyo, I adored With Malice Toward Some, and I've always loved Beverley Nichols' books. I'd add Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield and anything by D.E. Stevenson, particularly Miss Buncle's Book. I Capture the Castle falls into that time frame, as well.

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Comments (11)

vee_new
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Yoyo, probably too many to choose from, especially without checking the dates.

What comes to mind are many of the books by Elizabeth Goudge, especially Island Magic set on the Channel Islands and Towers in the Mist back in Tudor Oxford. No doubt if I were to reread them I might find them rather twee but they follow the writing style of the time.

Saplings by Noel Streatfeild (1945) deals with the consequences of the war on the children of a family of selfish adults.

Have you read anything by Angela Thirkell? A very popular author during your 'dates' and one who possibly gave readers in the US quite the wrong idea of how the average family lived in England at that time . . .but then she was a cousin of Rudyard Kipling and PM Stanley Baldwin and granddaughter of the famous pre-Raphaelite artist Burne-Jones. A favourite writer of cece who used to be here at RP some years ago.
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Curious. I don't think our World Books had those. Do you have one or more "yearbooks" that they published? Do you know how old your set is? Ours was a 1927 set and we were kids of the 1950s to 1970s. It was interesting to see, though, that some of the articles were unchanged from 1927 to --say-- the 1970 edition which we could look at in the school library. I remember the article on "Rainbow" was unchanged, except that it now had some color illustrations. But the '27 edition was no good if we needed to look up something about WWII, NASA and space exploration, Hawaii and Alaska as states, laser, suburbanization, Cold War, most of the presidents of the 20th century, etc. The Britannica was old, but not nearly so and had much longer, deeper discussion about everything. Britannica's article authors were identified, so not committee written. Ha, I remember we also had an old set of Funk & Wagnalls. Remember those? Our very old ones were kind of weird, filled with some rather archaic styles of writing. By the 1960s, F&W had become a lot like World Book. Our household did not have enough books; that is probably why I so clearly remember the encyclopedias. There was not much else around to read, (newspapers, cereal boxes, magazines --yes!) especially in summer without the school library, so we read the encylopedias. Oh, glory--- when the county finally opened a little library a couple miles away!
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yoyobon_gw
Original Author
6 years ago
Vee, I am not familiar with Angela Thirkell but will check her out.
annpanagain
6 years ago
Slightly outside your times but I discovered Pamela Branch who wrote quirky comedies starting with "The Wooden Overcoat" published in 1951.

I am re-reading the first of her books which I came across in a charity shop, "Murder's Little Sister", a paperback which is falling to pieces but all the pages are intact! There are reprints of her books available.
skibby (zone 4 Vermont)
6 years ago
I'm so glad I have one to add. It's called The Sudden Guest by Christopher La Farge. Published in 1946 and it's one of my favorites. Ominous tale of an older woman living alone in her seaside home and prepares for an oncoming hurricane. Very nice build up with the storm acting as antagonist. Extremely well done, and rather chilling. I've read it at least a half a dozen times.
Rosefolly z5
6 years ago
Historical fiction writer Thomas Costain began his career in the late 1940's. The Black Rose was published before 1950.
woodnymph2_gw
6 years ago
West with the Night - Beryl Markham - 1942

The Little Prince - Antoine de St. Exupery - 1943

The Book of Stillmeadow - Gladys Taber - 1948

Translation of Omar Kayyam's The Rubaiyat by E. Fitzgerald- 1947

I have so many more in my own collections that fits this category -- I am just getting started....
vee_new
6 years ago
Mary/woodnymph, I am just starting on 'The Little Prince' I don't know why I had never read it before!
georgia_peach
6 years ago
Some I can recall:

The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931) by Naomi Mitchison

South Riding (1936) by Winifred Holtby

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther (I think this started as serialized stories in the 30s, but novel came out around 1940)

Some of Helen MacInnes' early espionage thrillers

Guns of Burgoyne (1939) and Trumpet to Arms (1944) by Bruce Lancaster

Arundel (1929) and its sequel Rabble in Arms (1933) by Kenneth Roberts

Captain of Castile (1945) and Prince of Foxes (1947) by Samuel Shellabarger

Hercules My Shipmate (1944) by Robert Graves

Fair Stood the Wind for France (1944), The Purple Plain (1947), and The Jacaranda Tree (1949) by HE Bates

The Golden Warrior (1949 or 1950) by Hope Muntz

I'm particularly interested in fiction that came out just prior to or during WWII (before the the war ended). I find it interesting to read fiction released during that time when authors had no clue how the war would end and didn't have the hindsight we have today.
yoyobon_gw
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Here are two Helen MacInnes novels of that era which I really liked :

Above Suspicion - 1939

( there is an old movie based on it by the same title)

Assignment In Brittany -1942
carolyn_ky
6 years ago
I really liked The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge. Anything by Norah Lofts is good.

Hidden treasures published between 1930 to 1950 which you enjoyed ?

sheri_z6

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vee_new

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Hidden treasures published between 1930 to 1950 which you enjoyed ?

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