Day in a Child’s Life, A
London: George Routledge and Sons, 1881. Item #01404
One of the Books That Relieved John Ruskin's Depression
Rare in Dust Jacket
[GREENAWAY, Kate]. FOSTER, Myles B. A Day in a Child’s Life. Music by Myles B. Foster. Engraved and Printed by Edmund Evans. London: [n.d., 1881].
First edition. Quarto (9 11/16 x 8 1/4 in; 246 x 209 mm). Color-printed wood-engraved text illustrations, most accompanied with musical notations.
Publisher's gray glazed pictorial boards, beveled edges with green cloth backstrip, light green coated endpapers, all edges stained blue. Minimal soiling and rubbing to board edges and corners only, small split to front inner hinge,otherwise an exceptionally clean and near fine copy. In the publisher's printed dust jacket with most of spine missing and small piece missing from front panel not affecting text or image.
Thomson variant 31d with trellis-like border and garland of roses surrounding two seated girls.
"…By Christmas, Ruskin had recovered and was ready to advise her. Although he was still depressed by his uncontrollable health…his depression was somewhat relieved by Kate's latest books. which rekindled his interest in her ability to depict children and reminded him of his departed beloved [little Rose La Touche]. Mother Goose had a title-page drawing of a baby lying in a basket of roses. A Day in a Child's Life was even more evocative, with its rose wreath half-title page; a blonde girl lying in bed, so reminiscent of a child Rose on her sick bed; and young girls in white frocks dancing over a hillside to 'A Romp' - so like his Winnington Hall frolics" (Engen p.81).
Schuster & Engen 66. Thomson 31a. Engen, Kate Greenaway. A Biography.
Price: $950.00