The Book of Fairy Poetry, Illustrated by Warwick Goble, 1920 First Edition, Mixed Authors

THE BOOK OF FAIRY POETRY.
Edited by Dora Owen.

Illustrated by Warwick Goble.

First Edition published 1920 by Longmans, Green and Co.

Contains 16 tipped-in COLOURED PLATES on heavy card stock, all with tissue guards, including frontispiece. Also with b&w illustrations. 

The Book of Fairy Poetry is a anthology of poems and tales involving fairies. There are three parts: Fairy Stories; Fairy Songs, Dances & Talk; Fairyland & Fairy Lore. On Part III ("Fairyland and Fairy Lore"), on pages 177-178, J.R.R. Tolkien's poem Goblin Feet is included. This is the first illustrated appearance of "Goblin Feet" by JRR Tolkien. Originally published in "Oxford Poety 1915", the poem is here accompanied by a colour plate entitled "And the padding feet of many gnomes a-coming", which has the distinction of being the very first illustration to accompany any of Tolkien's published work - years before The Hobbit. Other works included are drawn from some of the great names of English literature, such as William Shakespeare, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Walter Scott, Christina Rossetti, John Milton, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Yeats, and John Keats.

CONDITION:

The book measures 20cm x 26cm, 3.5cm thick.

There are various signs of age, use and wear. The original publishers olive cloth binding is darkened in parts, some faint discolouration spots and rubbing dotted all around. Both boards have rubbing along the edges, and corners bumped. The spine is sunned, darkened more so than the boards. Title in blue on front board and spine, along with Fairy illustration. Head and tail of spine have particular shelf wear, some fraying of the edges, some surface splitting of the cloth. Joints holding well, no exterior splitting, boards holding firm to the text block. Attractive endpapers illustrated with a Fairy and Peacock, paper yellowed with age. Upper board hinge webbing visible, but holding well. Black Ink inscription opposite half title page reads "With love from Daddy, to Darling Ruth, Xmas 1921." The overall text block has age toned, yellowed throughout, some minor foxing. A couple of pages have some unidentified margin staining, possibly soiled from dirty hands, mostly affecting pages 82,83, 93. All text remains legible. All illustrations present, all in good condition, protected with tissue guards. Page edges toned. No loose or missing pages, binding good.

Overall the book remains in good reading condition, however, as noted the book is well used and aged. A scarce edition, remaining highly sought after by Tolkien fans and those that love Fairys!

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