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Author: Wilde, Oscar
Title: The Happy Prince and Other Tales
Place Published: London
Publisher:David Nutt
Date Published: 1888
Description:

Title page in red & black. Frontispiece and 2 further illustrations by Walter Crane (each in 2 states) with head- and tail-pieces by Jacomb Hood. (4to) 28.4x19.7 cm (11¼x7¾"), pictorial paper-covered boards lettered in red on cover, black on spine. Presented in custom morocco-backed green cloth-covered slipcase. Printed at Ballantyne Press. No. 39 of an edition limited to 75 copies. First Edition.

Signed by Oscar Wilde at limitation, as issued. In a letter to George Herbert Kersley from June 15, 1888, Wilde describes his stories as follows, "they are studies in prose, put for Romance's sake into a fanciful form: meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness". As ever, it is best to describe his work in Wilde's own crystalline language. ;Stories include: The Happy Prince; The Nightingale and the Rose; The Selfish Giant; The Devoted Friend; and The Remarkable Rocket. Walter Crane's lovely illustrations depict The Happy Prince (frontispiece), The Selfish Giant, and The Remarkable Rocket. Mason 313.

Slipcase morocco sunned from green to brown with some further sunning to cloth, light rubbing and wear; volume shows rubbing at spine ends and at extremities, ink stains and some soiling, hinges having once been repaired are cracking anew, binding shaken somewhat; very good or better.