Aylwin. WATTS-DUNTON, Theodore. Antiquarian,Literature,Occult

Octavo (8 by 5 inch) hardcover, full dark & light blue checkered cloth, gilt design front, gilt titling to spine. * Poem in pencil front pastedown & front free endpaper, some spotty loss of color to small sections of boards & spine, o/w original binding fully intact & VERY GOOD CONDITION. *** Though the book was a sensation at the turn of the 20th-century, the author is little known today. In life he was a close friend of many significant writers and artists of the day, including the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and even Lord Tennyson himself. *** It appears that the British edition of the book wasn't published until 1899, by Hurst & Blackett, London, which would make this American edition the true first. *** Though it is all fiction, the book apparently has considerable material about Gypsies, including much Romany lore and occultism; and unusual for the time (or for any time), it presents the Gypsies in a positive light. *** The poetry in the front is from an unknown author (as far as I can tell), and is actually not bad. *^*^* DESPITE SOME MINOR SPOTTING AS NOTED, A VERY SOLID FIRST EDITION COPY.