A Child's Garden of Verses
First edition of this important book by Stevenson.
A beautiful untrimmed copy preserved in its publisher’s cloth, as issued.
12mo of (2), X, 101 pp.
Original blue cloth, gilt lettering on the spine and gilt stamped publisher’s device on the upper cover, top edge gilt, page edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom slipcase.
162 x 105 mm.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Child’s Garden of Verses.
London, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1885.
First edition of Stevenson’s delightful ad influential book of children’s verse, “the first sizable group of poems to capture a child’s quality of imagination, sense of wonder and intense enjoyment of experience”.
Prideaux 14. Hayward 297. Grolier Club Stevenson 55. Gerstley 20A. Gumuchian 5440. Osborne II:662
First printing with '7' shaped apostrophe to spine, 'of' on spine in smaller type and with no mention of 'Two Series' in list of other works by the author.
"The power of this collection of simple verses lies in the fact that it shows that life which a child lives within himself, and takes so completely for granted that he seldom speaks of it, usually because he cannot Stevenson has here recaptured not only a part, but the whole of that hidden life, and has set those recollections forth in just the terms that children would use, could they put them into words at all They were the first sizable group of poems to capture a child’s quality of imagination, sense of wonder, and intense enjoyment of experience" (Meigs, 293-4, 408).
“No volume of children's poetry has left such an indelible mark on so many generations of devoted readers as this Robert Louis Stevenson classic. Stevenson's sentimental tribute to the joys of childhood has stood the test of time -- it has never been out of print. And so thorough was his understanding of the child psyche and that special place all children create that grownups have also adopted it as a favorite reminder of the imaginary world in which they too once lived” (Donna Green).
« Ce volume est une merveille par l'extraordinaire vivacité avec laquelle il restitue les impressions du jeune âge » (Henry James).
A beautiful untrimmed copy preserved in its publishers’ blue cloth, as issued.
