A Scarce Title

Housman, Laurence ~ The Blue Moon : With The Author’s Tipped-In Signature

First UK Printing : John Murray, London : 1904

The First UK Printing published by John Murray, London in 1904. 8vo., navy publisher’s cloth, elaborately blocked and titled in black to the upper cover with a decorative design by the author / illustrator ; lettered in gilt to the spine. The binding is the usually encountered second state binding which was identical to the first state except that the latter had some gold blocking to the front board, although this was rather minimal. The demand for Housman's early books may have been rather limited and it is highly probable that the publishers didn't want to take a chance in getting stuck with an unsold inventory. So the first print run with the gilt blocking to the front board is likely to have been very small, with a batch of the 1st printing sheets held back and not bound pending demand. When subsequently bound, the second state binding had no gold blocking to the upper board. Upper edge gilt; with a decorative double-page frontis engraving by Clemence Housman, and a further 8 illustrations by the author (one listed as facing p. 3 appearing at p.21 as issued); numerous decorative initials to start each chapter; The BOOK is in Very Good+ copy, bruised to the spine ends, with upper edge a little dusty and some spotting to the outer edges and prelims, sometimes lightly encroaching onto the margins of pages; touch offsetting to the end-papers; the scarce original WRAPPER is in Very Good condition, aside from slight toning to the upper panel and spine, chipping and creasing to the folds and edges, with some loss to spine tips (up to 1.5cm in depth) affecting some of the title lettering; one discrete tape repair ( to the verso) to a split at foot of front flap (3.5cm in length). The wrapper rarely encountered is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. This copy with a tipped-in inscription from the author in ink affixed to the front free endpaper: 'Yours faithfully (No: 1080) Laurence Housman/ Dec: 4th 1934'. Housman was one of seven children born in Worcestershire and raised in a creative family. His older brother A. E. Housman went on to become a noted scholar and poet, and his sister Clemence was a fellow activist in the women's suffrage movement, as well as a talented writer/illustrator (here providing the beautiful double-page title featuring Wizards, princesses and peacocks). Growing up, the Housman siblings entertained themselves with poetry competitions, theatrical performances and even a family magazine. Laurence first worked as an art nouveau illustrator for a series of London publisher’s and produced designs for publications such as Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, as well as his sister’s novella The Were-Wolf. Later, he became a prolific writer, publishing over one hundred works whose subjects ranged from socialist and pacifist pamphlets to plays and children's stories. The Blue Moon is a collection of short stories of which the title tale focuses on the romance between Nillywill, a princess hiding her royal heritage, and Hands-pansy, a humble peasant boy, whose fated love rests on the return of the moon. The book features two further stories on the subject of the moon: ‘A Capful of Moonshine’ and ‘The Moonstroke’, as well as stories such as ‘The White Doe’, ‘The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter’ and ‘A Chinese Fairy-Tale’, the latter in which a young servant realises his dream of becoming an artist after walking into a painting and finding himself in an alternative world. Often overshadowed by his brother, Houseman wrote four collections of aesthetic fairy tales over the course of his lifetime, with the present work following A Farm in Fairyland (1894), The House of Joy (1895) and The Field of Clover (1898). Scarce with these attributes.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good+
JACKET: Very Good