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The Inviolable Sanctuary
George A. Birmingham [James Owen Hannay]
George A. Birmingham was the pseudonym of James Owen Hannay (1865-1950) an Irish priest and novelist. This novel was first published in 1911 by Thomas Nelson and Sons, as far I can ascertain.
The dust jacket was commissioned in a letter from Edwin Chater Jack dated 8th June 1917, sent to Blampied at 2 Winchester Villas, St Helier, Jersey:
We are sending you herewith two volumes, Clementina and The Inviolable Sanctuary. We are also sending you a wrapper showing you the style of design wanted. All that is required is the panel, no lettering, and we would like to have these panels bold and decorative in colour. In case of The Inviolable Sanctuary how would it do to give us a boat with a fine blue sky behind it, but we can safely leave the selection of subjects to you.
The jacket shows a boat, but it is not signed. The jacket indicates that this edition was issued on July 15, presumably in 1917, so it's probably the Blampied edition. The signature may have been cut off if the bottom if the illustration was trimmed.
(Page updated 22 June 2025)
Second edition
Bibliography code: NEL-17.4
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Series: Nelson's Red Library No. 179
Year: [1917]
Format: 16mo
Pages: Frontispiece, title page, pp 368, 16 pp ads
Binding: Red cloth blind-stamped with letters NL within a wreath. Spine: title and author in gold, blind stamped decoration of letters NL in a wreath, Nelson's Library at base.
Size: 161 x 111 mm
Dust jacket signed: no
Internal illustrations: frontispiece in monochrome same as jacket
Price: 7d
Printing history: not stated
Printed by: Printed in Great Britain at the Press of the Publishers
Notes: Found with jacket in June 2025, so that jacket had survived 108 years.
Dust jacket (click to enlarge)