LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. Early American Edition. Decorated & gilt-stamped cloth. Very Good/None. Reginald Birch. 8to (8 1/2" x 7"), original dark green pictorial publisher's cloth with embossed Little Lord Fauntleroy and his mastiff in gold against a russet medallion on cover with rampant small red lions and black crowns, engraved frontispiece (with tissue guard) and 25 B&W full page and vignette woodcut illustrations by Reginald B. Birch, wrapped in protective Mylar, brown coated endpapers, 209 pages of heavy stock + [2] blank + [16] Advertisements for "Scribners Books for the Young." No dust jacket as issued. A Delightful Classic of Children's Literature! <br/> <br/> First serialized in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October, 1886; first edition in 1886. The story became such an influence that thousands of adoring mothers began to dress their boys in fancy clothing just like the Little Lord! The book became the basis of numerous stage productions (one by Frances Burnett herself), and two film versions: one in 1921, and what remains the classic film by director David O. Selznick starring Freddie Bartholomew, Dolores Barrymore, and Mickey Rooney in 1936. <br/> <br/> English-born novelist and playwright, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was the highly praised author of three famous "children's" classics: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-86), A Little Princess (1905), and A Secret Garden (1911). In 1905, English-born Frances Burnett became an American citizen, and her works are valued around the globe. <br/> <br/> First editions (1886) in comparable condition run in excess of $1,250.<br/> TIght and internally unmarked copy. Plates are clean and unfoxed. Extremities are rubbed. Gilt on spine has dulled. Small chip lost from the margin of page 203. Previous owner's light name on front endpaper dated "1892."<br/> <br/> See Grolier, American One-Hundred #89; Merle Johnson, High Spots 18; Peter Parley to Penrod [PPP] 80-1; Gottlieb, Early Children's Books 244.