Oscar Wilde; Walter Crane & Jacomb Hood (illustrated): 'The ...

Estimate

£300 - £500

Oscar Wilde; Walter Crane & Jacomb Hood (illustrated): 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales.', London, David Nutt, 1888, 1st edition, one of 1,000 copies published in May of 1888, 3 full page black & white plates by Walter Crane and 12 head and tailpieces by Jacomb Hood complete (Crane plate 'The Happy Prince' bound between title and dedication page and without tissue guard), small 4to, original cream paper covered boards (slightly worn/rubbed), rebacked retaining the lower half of the original backstrip, front cover lettered in red with vignette design in black and publisher's device in red, internally leaves/plates generally clean/VGC. Scarce first edition of this fragile production, Wilde's collection of stories for children established his reputation as an author, with the Athenaeum comparing him to Hans Christian Andersen. In addition to the title story, this collection includes "The Nightingale and the Rose," "The Selfish Giant," "The Devoted Friend," and "The Remarkable Rocket." Wilde commented that he intended these stories "partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the child-like faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness" (Hart-Davis, Letters of Oscar Wilde, 219)