A FARM IN FAIRYLAND

1894. Housman, Laurence. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1894. Original apple-green cloth pictorially decorated in dark green and gilt.

First Edition of Laurence Housman's first book, a collection of twelve fairy tales he wrote and illustrated. He subsequently produced three similar collections of fairy tales (the illustrations of which were engraved by his sister Clemence) -- THE HOUSE OF JOY (1895), THE FIELD OF CLOVER (1898) and THE BLUE MOON (1904). (As an aside: what a family! -- another sibling was poet A.E. Housman, whose A SHROPSHIRE LAD came out in 1896 -- and Clemence was an author as well, authoring THE WERE-WOLF in that same year 1896.) As a whole, they [the fairy tales] represent the work of an imaginative writer with an eye and an ear for detail; the telling phrase, the delicate expression, with which he enchanted his young readers. His prose is musical and essentially simple, but nevertheless filled with action to stimulate a child's roving mind. The fate of a character can change within the twist of a phrase, the plot sent racing down an altogether new path... Even today historians of children's literature include Housman's fairy-tales in anthologies because of his ability to delight the senses... [Engen] As with the next two volumes, this one is handsomely bound in apple-green cloth with one of the illustrations reproduced on the front cover (mostly in dark green, but with a splash of gilt). This is a nearly fine copy (scarcely any soil or wear, with only slight fading of the spine cloth); atypically, there is no foxing on the leaves within. Engen pp 60-70; NCBEL III 632 & 1098. Provenance: signature of "GB Postlethwaite | Chislehurst | 1894