Swallowdale (First American edition, a fine copy.) by Ransome, Arthur

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 1932. 8vo, 393 pp. With illustrations throughout in black and white, and a vignette on the title-page and one full-page plate in brown. Original brown cloth stamped in yellow, dust-jacket, a virtually flawless copy as issued.

§ First American edition, illustrated by Helene Carter. A peerless copy as issued virtually impossible to find in this condition. Both the UK and the US first editions are extremely scarce. "Swallowdale is the second book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. It was published in London in 1931 and a year later in the US. In this book, camping in the hills and moorland country around Ransome's Lake in the North features much more prominently and there is less sailing. A significant new character, Maria Turner, the Blacketts' Great Aunt, is introduced. Ransome was living in the Lake District and he drew on his experiences and memories of encounters over many years with the local farming community. Ransome had often climbed Old Man of Coniston and in the book, this becomes the children's Kanchenjunga. Expeditions to Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas had been much in the news while Ransome was writing the book." (Wikipedia) The UK edition was illustrated by Clifford Webb and the US edition by Helene Carter, so the two editions are quite different.