The Fairy Caravan by POTTER, Beatrix - 1929

Philadelphia: David McKay, 1929. Limited. hardcover. near fine. Beatrix Potter. Illustrated by Potter with 6 color plates and 20 in b/w, plus 42 smaller vignettes within the text. 225 pages. 8vo, original green cloth with inset color pictorial label (one small abrasion partially degrading the "e" in "Beatrix"). Philadelphia: David McKay, (1929). Limited first American edition -- number 99 of only 100 copies, with limitation and signature on a thin parchment leaf. A clean, tight and near fine copy.<br/><br/> This is the last of Potter's major works. She had finished the Peter Rabbit series, and was writing only for her own amusement, but was persuaded by the Philadelphia publisher Alexander McKay that she should write again for the public. Potter decided to target only the American market with this work, worried that the stories involved were too personal or too local to the Lake District for the British public. <BR><BR>Alongside the American trade edition, a run of 100 copies were produced separately for her American friends and as gifts to be distributed at the discretion of the publisher, each with a limitation sheet signed by the author, and this is one of those extremely scarce autographed editions. It is the only limited/signed edition of any Beatrix Potter story ever produced. See Linder, "The Writings of Beatrix Potter," pp. 292-305.<br/><br/>