At the Back of the North Wind

New York: George Routledge & Sons, 1871. First American "copyright" edition. Small octavo 6 15/16 x 4 7/8 inches; 175 x 125 mm). viii, 378, [2, blank] pp. Seventy-six wood-engraved text illustrations after Arthur Hughes.

This edition pre-dates that recorded by Sadleir as the first American edition and is almost certainly one of a few copies printed in England at the same time as the first English edition and sent over to the United States to secure American copyrights. The title-page has been re-set to include the American imprint and date, along with the list of other titles by MacDonald, but without mention of the illustrations, as in Sadleir's first American edition. The pagination matches that of Sadleir's American edition (undated, though he cites a presentation copy inscribed 1873), with the initial blank here wrongly bound in at the end.

Original publisher's variant burgundy pebble-grained cloth. Front cover and spine lettered and stamped in black and gilt according to the primary stamping of the first English edition. With the initials of the English publishers Alexander Strahan and Co, stamped at the bottom of the spine. Back cover stamped in blind. Buff endpapers. All edges gilt. Spine and board edges sunned. Extremities lightly worn and rubbed. Inner hinges neatly repaired. Some dampstaining to front and back endpapers. Previous owner's inscription dated 1873 on front free endpaper. Overall, an excellent copy, very clean and fresh.

See Sadleir 1474c.

HBS 68488.

$2,500.