[Rarebooks] fa: ANDREW LANG - BALLADS AND LYRICS 1872 - Author's First Book/INSCRIBED

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, May 31. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mr3mju3

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Andrew Lang: Ballads and Lyrics of Old France: With Other Poems. By A. Lang. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1872. FIRST EDITION; 8vo (19 cm) in original publisher's cream cloth decorated and lettered in gilt; 164 pp.

PRESENTATION COPY of the author's first book, inscribed in Lang's hand on the title-page: "Mrs P P Sellar / best & kindest wishes / 17 [Walter?] Street. 1st Jany 1871." Lang's mother's maiden name was Sellar, so the recipient is undoubtedly a family relation of Lang's. A previous owner's penciled note on the front flyleaf indicates that she was "the wife of one of his uncles." Interestingly, the inscription is dated the year before the book's publication. Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish-born poet, novelist and literary critic, and one of the founders of the "psychical research" movement. He is best remembered today for his twelve Fairy Books (The Blue Fairy Book, Red Fairy Book, Green Fairy Book, etc.), collections of folk and fairy tales issued in differently colored bindings between 1889 and 1910.

Binding with sunning/darkening to the edges and spine, bumping and light wear to the extremities, some rubbing and soiling to the boards. Rear paste-down with the small bookbinder's label of Burn & Co.; front paste-down with the bookplate of noted book collector Percival F. Hinton.