Evangeline - A Tale of Acadie by LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth [1807-1882] & DIXON, Arthur A. (Arthur Augustus) (1872-1959) illustrated by - 1907

London: Ernest Nister, and in New York by E. P. Dutton & Co. Printed in Bavaria, 1907. Later edition. Hard Cover. Very Good+. Later edition. 5-1/2 x 7-1/2 inches, 6, [5]-160pp., Front cover is beautifully decorated in dark green and red floral design with beautiful gilt stamping of title and author. All page edges gilt. Decorated endpapers with overall spotting to front and back, portraying Acadians traveling from home -- endpapers bear  printed signature of A. A. Dixon. All twelve full page color plates and 40 small in-text colour Illustrations are charming and very attractive. Small B&W in-text illustrations also throughout the book. Very light rubbing to corners and spine ends with a couple of very minor spots on back cover, otherwise very good+ condition. The text of the title page reads: Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Illustrated by Arthur Dixon. 1856. British Library holds a similar copy and dates this book circa 1907 (not the printed 1856 date on the title page). Given the artist A.A. Dixon was born in 1872, clearly he did not paint these illustrations till much later that 1856 therefore the circa publication date of 1907 makes sense. In 1713, Acadia, or, as it is now named, Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain by the French. Some time after, war having again broken out between the French and British in Canada, the Acadians were accused of having assisted the French, and the British Government ordered them to be removed from their homes, and dispersed throughout the other colonies, at a distance from their much loved land. The poem is descriptive of the fate of some of the persons involved in these calamitous proceedings. Arthur Augustus Dixon (British, 1872-1959), was already working as an artist by 18, and is best remembered for his dozens of illustrated books from Ernest Nister, Collins Clear-Type, and Blackie & Sons.