A Hundred Fables of Aesop

Abstract

I do not know whether I can count this beautiful book a first edition. My later copies (1922 and 1924 printings) show a printing history that begins in 1898 and has a first reprinting in 1902, but this book shows no similar printing history on the back of the title-page, and on the front has 1899. The book is inscribed in 1900. Notice that a New York office exists now for John Lane the Bodley Head; it will not be mentioned in the printing of 1922-and then will be mentioned again in the printing of 1924! Like those two later editions, this follows the format of a fable for every two pages, with the text on the left and the illustration on the right. Unlike those copies, this has excellent paper and so these are the sharpest Billinghurst illustrations I think I have seen. There is some slight water-damage to the tops of the pages. The first illustration is crooked! Among the best of the illustrations on this trip through have been these: FK (33), BF (49), The Lark and Her Young Ones (69), DM (91), and FG (123). The book is in very good condition, and its cover includes some lively red.