The Brown Fairy Book. Lang, Andrew (Ed.).

First edition, first impression, of the ninth title in the Fairy Books series, gathering tales from North America, Brazil, Australia, Africa, Persia, India, Lapland, and the Pacific Islands. Among its 32 stories are "The Wicked Wolverine", "The Mermaid and the Boy", and "How Some Wild Animals became Tame ones". Henry Justice Ford's (1860-1941) artwork for the series "provided a benchmark in fantasy illustration" (Grolier). Though the Fairy Books are credited to Andrew Lang (1844-1912), he acknowledged in the preface to Lilac (1910) that they "have been almost wholly the work of Mrs [Leonora] Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages". Grolier Children's 100, 51. Octavo. Original brown cloth, spine lettered and stamped with fairy devices in gilt, front cover elaborately blocked in gilt with fairy figures encircling a child upon a background of stars and vines, brown coated endpapers with illustrations in silver, edges gilt. Colour frontispiece with tissue guard, 7 colour plates, 22 uncoloured engraved plates, further engravings in the text, all by H. J. Ford. Bookseller's ticket on front pastedown. Bumps to spine ends, a little rubbing but gilt bright overall, foxing to outer leaves, otherwise clean. A near-fine copy.