1942 Rare Dust Jacket - The Secret Garden illustrated by Charles Robinson
A beautifully illustrated 1942 Heinemann edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s enduring classic, complete with Charles Robinson’s eight atmospheric colour plates and, unusually, preserved in its scarce original pictorial dust jacket.
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Title: The Secret Garden.
Illustrator: Charles Robinson.
Publisher: London: William Heinemann Ltd., June 1942.
Edition: 1942 reprint. First published by Heinemann in October 1911; this edition appears in the publisher’s printing history as the June 1942 impression.
Language: English.
Pages: vi, 300 pages.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Very good original green cloth binding, attractively decorated and lettered in dark green to the upper board and spine with Charles Robinson’s design of Mary seated among roses. Minor age-related wear and light marks only, the binding remaining bright, firm and attractive. Complete with the scarce original illustrated dust jacket, priced 8s. 6d. net on the spine. The jacket is in good condition with general age-toning and soiling, rubbing, small chips and closed tears to the edges and extremities, and some loss at the head of the spine as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, complete, firmly bound and generally clean, with occasional light spotting and age-toning consistent with the period. Attractive pictorial endpapers printed in pale green.
Illustrations: Complete with eight colour plates by Charles Robinson, including the frontispiece, together with decorative title-page, endpapers and other ornamental details. The plates remain bright and appealing.
Estimate: USD 200-225.
The book: A particularly attractive wartime edition of The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved story of Mary Lennox, the neglected and contrary child who is sent from India to the mysterious Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire. Her discovery of a locked and abandoned garden—and her friendship with Dickon and the invalid Colin—gradually transforms both the garden and the children themselves. First published in book form in 1911, the novel has become one of the enduring classics of English children’s literature, celebrated for its evocation of nature, renewal, friendship and the restorative power of a hidden garden.
This 1942 Heinemann printing is especially desirable for retaining Charles Robinson’s celebrated illustrations and its original dust jacket. Robinson’s delicate, romantic imagery is particularly well suited to Burnett’s world: shadowy gardens, old houses, children, animals and vegetation are rendered with the graceful line and muted colour characteristic of the great British gift-book illustrators. Copies of these earlier Heinemann illustrated editions are frequently encountered without their jackets, making the survival of the present pictorial example an especially appealing feature.
The author: Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was an Anglo-American novelist and playwright best remembered for three classics of children’s literature: The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Born in Manchester, she emigrated with her family to the United States as a teenager and began writing professionally to support them. Her children’s novels combine vivid storytelling with recurring themes of displacement, imagination, nature and personal transformation, and The Secret Garden remains her most enduringly admired work.
The illustrator: Charles Robinson (1870–1937) belonged to the celebrated Robinson family of British illustrators and became one of the most distinctive figures of the Golden Age of book illustration. His elegant line, decorative borders and dreamlike compositions appeared in numerous children’s classics, including works by Stevenson, Carroll and Burnett. His illustrations for The Secret Garden have become closely associated with the novel and are among the most charming visual interpretations of Burnett’s story.