Wonder Book, A
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1922. Item #06280
A Wonderful Book
[RACKHAM, Arthur]. HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. A Wonder Book. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., [1922].
First trade edition. Quarto (9/16 x 7 5/16 inches; 243 x 186 mm.). viii, 206, [1], [1, imprint] pp. Sixteen full-page mounted color plates with captioned tissue-guards, seven other full-page color illustrations, and one full-page black & white drawing. Twenty additional black and white text drawings in the text.
Publisher's red cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in gilt, spine lettered in gilt, pictorial end-papers, top edge stained blue. Covers a little faded and worn. A good copy only.
"The moment one opens Hawthorne's Wonder Book one becomes aware of the rounding and softening of form in Rackham's work. The modern Pandora of Hawthorne opens her box for the world in 1922, and she is a very living young girl, with breasts just beginning to swell, indicating that Rackham was aware of the undertones of this story which is being retold with every lifetime." (Gettings, Arthur Rackham, p. 121).
Latimore and Haskell p. 55. Riall p. 146. Gettings p. 179.
Price: $250.00