"I HAVE TO GO TO ENGLAND AND BE A LORD": FIRST ISSUE OF LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY

BURNETT, Frances Hodgson. Little Lord Fauntleroy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886. Octavo, original pictorial blue-gray cloth. $2200.

First edition in book form, scarce first issue, with illustrations by Reginald Birch.

First published as a serial in St. Nicholas Magazine (November 1885-October 1886), Burnett's book "earned wide praise on its publication; enthusiastic reviewers included Louisa May Alcott, and among its English admirers was Gladstone" (Carpenter & Prichard, 316). "It is unfortunate that Cedric Fauntleroy, the charming American grandson of a crusty English earl, has been stereotyped as a sissy, for he is a charming and resourceful child. But his characteristic velvet suit with Vandyke collar, a fashion of the day, was forced upon many real-life boys [A.A. Milne among them] who then looked upon the novel with disfavor. Nonetheless, it became one of the best-selling books of all time on both sides of the Atlantic, and spawned dozens of theatrical and film interpretations" (Silvey, 106). With printer's device on page [210], 14 pages of publisher's advertisements bound in back, and signature mark 12, indicating first issue. BAL 2064. Pierpoint Morgan Library, Children's Literature 244. Gift inscription dated year after publication.

Interior quite fresh, scant edge-wear to pictorial bright gilt-cloth. A handsome about-fine copy.