THE FAIRY CARAVAN by Potter, Beatrix - 1929

1929. Philadelphia: David McKay Company, (1929). Original dark green cloth with front cover pictorial onlay.

First Edition of this collection of tales outside of the "Peter Rabbit" series, about a traveling circus that was invisible to humans. According to her Preface these tales "were not meant for printing... I send them on the insistence of friends beyond the sea [i.e. Alexander McKay]." Beatrix Potter did not wish for an English edition of THE FAIRY CARAVAN, because she felt that the stories were 'too personal -- too autobiographical' to publish in [that] country [Linder]. Thus the first edition was this American one (100 sets of the McKay sheets, with a different first section, became "Beatrix Potter's Limited Edition" in the UK -- to secure copyright there); it was not until 1952 that a UK trade edition appeared, almost a decade after the author's death. Included are six color plates including the frontispiece, plus another on the front cover; there are also numerous drawings within the text, many of them full-page. This is a near-fine copy (a trace of wear at the head of the spine, faint speckling of the cloth sizing, two adjacent leaves with slight marginal damage). Linder pp 292-305 (accidentally omitting mention of the plate facing page 202 in THE FAIRY CARAVAN); Quinby 29A.