Kate Greenaway

A. & C. Black Ltd, London, first edition, 1905. Decorated cloth, top edge gilt, decorative endpapers, small 4to, 23 cm,. xix, [1], 300, [4] pp, [79] leaves of plates, some colour with tissue-guards with captions. From the preface : "Apart from her work, full record of which is made in the following pages, there was in the life of Kate Greenaway one outstanding feature - her friendship with John Ruskin. ... It is therefore our first duty and pleasure to put on record our great indebtedness to [Ruskin's executors] for their liberality in allowing us to make copious extracts from Ruskin's side of the vigorous correspondence which was carried on between him and Kate Greenaway for so many years. .. From Kate Greenaway's side of the correspondence abundant drafts have also been made, for they reveal the writer's character and method of thought better than any independent estimate could do... A word must be said concerning the illustrations. The published works of Kate Greenaway are known, and ought to be found, in every house where children live and are loved. We have therefore confined ourselves, with a few rare and intentional exceptions, to work quite unknown to the public, such as early drawings of the cottage at Rolleston where her career, undreamed of as yet, was being determined, thumb-nail sketches with which she embellished her letters, and more important drawings done for sale to picture-buyers or for presentation to friends. Name and date on half-title, head and tail of spine worn with short closed tears, heavily sunned around spine and top edge of boards,small dents to fore-edge and lower edge of front board, otherwise Good.