1971 Wisden Hardback – UNIQUE

This edition comes from the Diana Rait Kerr collection.  Rowan Scrope Rait Kerr was the MCC Secretary from 1936 to 1952. His daughter Diana joined him at Lord’s after WW2 to help catalogue and arrange the MCC library. She eventually became Curator of the MCC museum. During her work at Lord’s she also wrote extensively for cricket publications and co-wrote books with Ian Peebles. She was also one of the first women to be offered MCC membership.
She inherited her fathers’ Wisden collection and also built her own and when the set was offered to me I bought all 240+ editions.

The original dust jacket on this 1971 hardback is in Super condition – it is exceptionally bright and clean.

Internally this edition is also splendid – the boards and the contents are delightful. The page block is also delightful.

The 1971 Wisden is the hardest to find in excellent condition of all post 1950 Wisdens. Due to falling sales throughout the 1960s and the cancellation of the South Africa tour to the UK in 1970, Wisden reduced the print run of the 1971 edition. The 1970 season proved to be one of the most exciting for years, with the race for the County Championship the closest for decades, the Test series (although later re-classified as not a Test series) against a Rest of World XI pitching the best players in the world against an England team and the editorial comment on the cancellation of the 1970 tour – all made the demand for the 1971 far in excess of the publishers expectations.

A decision not to reprint the 1971 Wisden has resulted in the price for even a poor hardback or soft back being higher than for any other year.