“FOR THOSE… WHO FIND IN SIMPLICITY A SUBTLE STRANGENESS”: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE HAPPY PRINCE, INSCRIBED BY OSCAR WILDE IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION, ONE OF 1000 COPIES

WILDE, Oscar. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood. London: David Nutt, 1888. Quarto, original black- and red-stamped pictorial Japanese vellum boards, uncut and partially unopened; housed in a custom half morocco slipcase and chemise.

Rare first trade edition, one of 1000 copies printed, in original Japanese vellum pictorial boards, with three plates by illustrator Walter Crane, inscribed in the year of publication, “Edith Cones from her sincere friend the author. Oscar Wilde, June, 88.” A fine, exceptional copy.

Wilde wrote these tales for his own children. He told Richard La Gallienne that “It is the duty of every father… to write fairy tales for his children.” His children later wrote of their father’s “never-ending supply” of fairy tales and tales of adventure, which he often told them to calm them down. Many of his stories were never put to paper, unfortunately, but the ones that do survive are considered to be examples of his most creative writing. In addition to the title story, this collection includes “The Nightingale and the Rose,” “The Selfish Giant,” “The Devoted Friend,” and “The Remarkable Rocket.” Wilde commented that he intended these stories “partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the child-like faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness” (Hart-Davis, Letters of Oscar Wilde, 219). Wilde’s “reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales… Wilde presents the stories like sacraments of a lost faith… Their occasional social satire is subordinated to a sadness unusual in fairy tales” (Ellmann, 299). With illustrated head and tail pieces by Jacomb Hood, and three plates by Walter Crane. Published the same year as the exceptionally rare signed limited edition of only 75 copies. Mason 313.

Occasional scattered light foxing to interior; original binding fresh and lovely. A fine, unrestored copy, scarce inscribed and in such exceptional condition.