Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen by RACKHAM, Arthur; ANDERSEN, Hans Christian

London: George G. Harrap, 1932. First English American Trade Edition
Near Mint in the Original Dust Jacket and Box

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. ANDERSEN, Hans Christian. Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: George G. Harrap, 1932.

First English/American trade edition, with Harrap imprint to title page and dust jacket but with McKay imprint to tail of cloth spine.

Large octavo (9 5/8 x 7 1/4 inches; 244 x 184 mm.). 287, [1] pp. Twelve full-page color illustrations with captioned tissue-guards and fifty-nine black and white drawings. Pink and white pictorial end-papers.

Publisher's rose red cloth, pictorially stamped in gilt on front cover and spine, top edge gilt. Spine with MacKay imprint. A very fine copy in the original fine color pictorial (price-clipped and with one clean 3/4 inch tear at top of spine) dust jacket with "Harrap" at foot of spine, in turn housed in the fine original publisher's box with a full color illustration laid on.

Although this is clearly the first English trade edition the cloth binding is a previously unrecorded variant with the U.S. (David McKay) stamp at the foot of the spine.

The British and US printings were identical, both printed by R. & R. Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh, although the American issue is 1/8 inch shorter than the British issue.

"The Observer invited Hugh Walpole to chose the best picture-book of 1932. 'I give the prize without hesitation to Rackham's Hans Andersen,' Walpole replied. 'He has risen nobly to his subject. He has acquired a new tenderness and grace. His fantasy is stronger than ever.' Twenty-five years after its publication, the Hans Andersen had become one of the most difficult of Rackham's books to buy second-hand" (Hudson, Arthur Rackham His Life and Work, p. 133-34).

Latimore and Haskell, p. 68. Riall, p. 177.