SCHOLAR GIPSIES

1896. London: John Lane / New York: Macmillan & Co., 1896. 16 pp ads dated 1896. Original light brown cloth decorated in dark brown, with dark brown cloth spine elaborately decorated in gilt.

First Edition of Buchan's second book, a volume of sixteen essays, preceded only by his SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS of 1895. Buchan notes in his "Prefatory" that these pieces "were all written in youth, when a man's thoughts run on many diverse things with a certain tentative aim," and also that "they were written in close connection with that most beautiful country, the upper valley of Tweed, where the grace of old times seems to have long lingered." This is the third volume in the publisher's handsome "Arcady Library" series; it is beautifully illustrated with etchings by D.Y. Cameron (Buchan's Glasgow friend who introduced him to the publisher John Lane), and the cover design (of a goat-footed Pan piping to three nymphs) is by Patten Wilson. This is a remarkably bright copy, fine except for a faint damp-stain at the bottom edge of the covers -- quite an uncommon book in this condition. Blanchard A4.