RED FAIRY BOOK

Philadelphia: Macrae Smith, 1920. Very good plus.. Early 20th century US edition of this classic book of fairy tales with a different binding style than the first edition, still elaborately designed for a gift audience. Andrew Lang is considered the fairytale taste-maker of late 19th and early 20th century British nurseries, with his color fairy book series leading the charge. Stories in this volume include "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Rapunzel," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," and "The Story of Sigurd" (from Morris's translation of the Volsunga Saga). Typical for Lang's edited collections, the work to adapt and translate these stories has primarily been accomplished by others with whom he worked (often women), duly credited in the preface, though not the title page. This edition was issued in the Washington Square Classics series, a US marketing effort at reissuing well-known titles in beautiful gift editions in the 1910s and 1920s. 7.5'' x 5.5''. Original gilt-stamped navy color, pictorial paste-on. Pictorial endpapers printed in blue. Illustrated by Lee with full color frontispiece, six further full-page color images, and black-and-white vignettes. viii, 399, [1] pages. Binding rather bumped at extremities. Front hinge repaired. Interior clean, gilt bright.