EARLY PHOTOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE WORLD’S ANIMALS

CORNISH, Charles John. Living Animals of the World: A Popular Natural History. London: Hutchinson, [1901-02]. Two volumes. Thick quarto, original green cloth, pictorially stamped in blind, black and gilt.

Early edition of this comprehensive photographic encyclopedia of the world’s mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects and molluscs, with 1,210 halftone photographs produced “on a scale never equaled in any previous publication” (including 25 full-page photographic color plates).

A family memoir of Charles Cornish tells that “the boundless energy, quick fancy, and intense interest and curiosity in everything around him, which are apparent in his writings, characterized him from his earliest years. When a tiny child in petticoats, he not only knew the habits and nesting-places of nearly all the living inhabitants of the garden and fields in which he and his brothers played… His first essay on a natural history subject was not written until after he had left Oxford and settled in London as an assistant classical master at St Paul’s School… Soon after he came to London he began to write occasional articles for [outdoor] papers, and in 1890 he became a regular contributor to the Spectator. Although his articles in that paper were unsigned, many of its readers soon learned to recognize his delightful discourses on animals and outdoor life” (Edith Cornish). In due course Cornish published Wild England of Today (1895), Animals of Today (1898) and The Naturalist on the Thames (1902). These volumes qualified him to edit this monumental work, which includes scholarly essays on “Rats and Insect-Eating Mammals,” “Tapirs and Hyrax,” and “The Dugong, Manatecs, Whales, Porpoises, and Dolphins.” The work is illustrated by 1,210 photographs of animals in their natural habitats. “Photography applied to the illustration of the life of beasts, birds, fishes, insects, corals and plants is at once the most attractive and the most correct form of illustration. In the following pages it will be used on a scale never equaled in any previous publication.” Owner signatures of Pansy Ireland, mistress of Pebble Hill Plantation, a well-known collector, particularly of sporting and equestrian books.

A fine copy, with only light rubbing to extremities of original cloth.