 First edition | |
| Author | Dornford Yates |
|---|---|
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Ward Lock & Co [1] |
Publication date | 1929 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 319 [1] |
Maiden Stakes is a 1929 collection of short stories by the English author Dornford Yates (Cecil William Mercer) originally written for The Windsor Magazine .
The book largely consists of stand-alone short stories, but one ("Letters Patent") features the author's 'Berry' characters and references his 1928 novel Perishable Goods .
The stories originally appeared in The Windsor Magazine .
| Chapter | Title | Windsor Date | Volume | Issue | Pages | Illustrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Childish Things | July 1925 | LXII | 366 | 121-133 | Albert Bailey |
| II | St. Jeames | August 1927 | LXVI | 392 | 265-277 | Lindsay Cable |
| III | Aesop's Fable | October 1927 | LXVII | 394 | 513-524 | Lindsay Cable |
| IV | Vanity Of Vanities | January 1928 | LXVIII | 397 | 170-180 | Norah Schlegel |
| V | Force Majeure | March 1928 | LXVIII | 399 | 386-398 | Henry Coller |
| VI | Bricks Without Straw | December 1927 | LXVIII | 396 | 21-31 | Lindsay Cable |
| VII | 'Service' | April 1929 | LXIX | 412 | 593-608 | P B Hickling |
| VIII | In Evidence | February 1929 | LXIX | 410 | 289-302 | J Dewar Mills |
| IX | Maiden Stakes | March 1929 | LXIX | 411 | 451-465 | R Allen Shuffrey |
| X | Letters Patent | January 1929 | LXIX | 409 | 157-169 | Lindsay Cable |
"Childish Things" and "Aesop's Fable" appeared in The Saturday Evening Post editions of 27 June 1925 and 10 September 1927 respectively. "St Jeames" appeared in Ladies' Home Journal in August 1927.
The book was written at a difficult time for Mercer, when relations between him and his wife Bettine were getting steadily worse. [2] Nevertheless, the original dedication read "To the American girl who did me the lasting honour to become my wife." In later editions this was changed to "To those exquisite summer evenings, when I have sat, in my shirt-sleeves, two thousand five hundred feet up, watching my elders and betters using the scythe, and, by their comfortable labour, performing the incredible feat of adding sweetness to the mountain air."