1927 First Edition - Jules Verne - Michael Strogoff, A Courier Of The Czar illustrated by N. C. Wyeth.

 

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Author: Jules Verne. (N. C. Wyeth, illustrator).
Title:  Michael Strogoff - A Courier Of The Czar - Alexander II.
Publisher: New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, no date (1927). First N.C. Wyeth illustrated edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 9.5 " X 7.5 ".
Pages: vi-397 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original illustrated full cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean. rare light foxing - as shown).  
Illustrations: Complete with all the 9 wonderful full-page illustrations by N. C. Wyeth. 

 The book: Attractive First N.C. Wyeth illustrated edition of Michael Strogoff: A Courier of the Czar (French: Michel Strogoff) - a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876. Critics, including Leonard S. Davidow, consider it one of Verne's best books. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than this, in fact, it is deservedly ranked as one of the most thrilling tales ever written." Unlike some of Verne's other novels, it is not science fiction, but a scientific phenomenon (Leidenfrost effect) is a plot device. The book was later adapted to a play, by Verne himself and Adolphe d'Ennery. Incidental music to the play was written by Alexandre Artus in 1880. The book has been adapted several times for films, television, and cartoon series.

The illustrator: Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the pupil of artist Howard Pyle and became one of America's greatest illustrators. During his lifetime, Wyeth created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books — 25 of them for Scribner's, the Scribner Classics, which is the body of work for which he is best known. The first of these, Treasure Island, was one of his masterpieces and the proceeds paid for his studio. Wyeth was a realist painter at a time when the camera and photography began to compete with his craft. Sometimes seen as melodramatic, his illustrations were designed to be understood quickly. Wyeth, who was both a painter and an illustrator, understood the difference, and said in 1908, "Painting and illustration cannot be mixed—one cannot merge from one into the other."
He is the father of Andrew Wyeth and the grandfather of Jamie Wyeth, both well-known American painters. 

The author: Jules Gabriel Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne was born to bourgeois parents in the seaport of Nantes, where he was trained to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, but quit the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).