Holland, Barbara (Plymell, Charles)

On This High Hill

Cherry Valley, NY: Cherry Valley Editions, 1974. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. Signed by Barbara Holland. If one is led by a Google Search to the Wikipedia page of Barbara Holland, they are greeted with the following hilarious statement: “Barbara Murray Holland (April 5, 1933-September 7, 2010) was an American author who wrote in defense of modern-day vices such as cursing, drinking, eating fatty food and smoking cigarettes.” Is such an attitude as American as apple pie? Legendary literary outlaw Charles Plymell certainly thought so, and he and his wife Pamela Beach Plymell’s Cherry Valley Editions sought to bring out this short collection of Holland’s poems, titled “On This High Hill.” Holland wrote interestingly and widely on a number of topics, beginning as an equality feminist who relished the ability to support herself and later contributing short stories to magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal, McCall’s, Redbook and Seventeen. Her first published books were for children (something she had in common with her own mother, author Marion Holland), followed by an autobiographical account of raising children while working full-time, fittingly titled “Mother’s Day” in 1980. In the 1990s, she turned more forcefully towards nonfiction, flaunting her signature, irreverent brand of humor and releasing essay collections with titles like 1995’s “In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences.” In the early 2000s, she cranked out a series of historical and biographical works, among them the wonderfully-titled “Gentlemen’s Blood: A History of Dueling from Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk” and additionally found time for a satirical portrait of George W. Bush. At the ever-youthful age of 74, Holland released her 16th book “The Joy of Drinking.” In an interview with The Washington Post conducted shortly after that book’s release, she claimed the purpose for writing it was “…to protest the rise of broccoli, exercise and Starbucks.” During that same interview, she poured herself a glass of wine and lit a cigarette, pointing to each and saying: “Stuck up here on this mountain, I have only two hobbies” before finishing with the admission that she regularly drank “…a half-gallon of scotch a week.” This hard-living libertine senior eventually had her habits catch up with her, and died three years later at the age of 77 on September 7, 2010 of lung cancer at her home in Bluemont, Virginia. She is survived by the cheekily cantankerous string of books she released over a lifetime, and it is no wonder why the Plymells found this little-known, garter-pistol Lady of Letters so interesting. “On This High Hill” was released in an edition of 250 copies and has to our knowledge never been reprinted. This copy, uniquely, is signed by Barbara Holland in black thin felt-pen ink with signature reading: “Barbara Holland.” Book in very fine condition, virtually as issued, with only a modest bump to the bottom right-hand corner of front cover. Very Fine. [Item #4512]

Price: $50.00 save 20% $40.00