1919 Scarce First Edition - The Fairy Detective by Rupert Hughes, Illustrated
An uncommon 1919 first edition of Rupert Hughes's delightful children's fantasy, illustrated by Rhoda Chase, in its charming original pictorial cloth binding featuring a young girl and a squirrel.
Author: Rupert Hughes.
Illustrator: Rhoda Chase.
Title: The Fairy Detective.
Publisher: New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1919.
Edition: First Edition. Published September 1919, as stated on the copyright page.
Language: English.
Pages: 72 pages.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Good original tan cloth binding with a blue pictorial panel on the front cover, featuring a charming coloured illustration by Rhoda Chase of a young girl and a squirrel within a decorative floral wreath. Lettered spine. An old repair to the upper portion of the front joint, as shown, with some rubbing and wear to the extremities and pictorial cover. The binding remains sound and attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good. Pages generally clean, with light age-toning and occasional minor marks. An early handwritten inscription on the front free endpaper. Complete.
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout by Rhoda Chase, with five full-page black-and-white plates, including the frontispiece, and charming decorative drawings and vignettes.
Estimate: USD $175–200.
The book: Published in 1919, The Fairy Detective is an uncommon and wonderfully imaginative children's fantasy by the American author Rupert Hughes. The book follows a little girl who encounters a mysterious fairy detective, an extraordinary creature capable of assuming the forms of different animals. Through five entertaining episodes, the detective introduces her to the hidden lives of squirrels, mice, fish, and eagles, transforming familiar encounters with the natural world into adventures filled with fantasy, humour, and gentle moral lessons.
The five episodes, The Prince Who Was a Policeman, ???, A Scandal in Mouseville, Being a Fish, and The Un-American Eagle, combine whimsical storytelling with a playful interest in animal behaviour and human society. Particularly memorable are the detective's encounters with a community of squirrels, the secret affairs of mice, and an indignant eagle protesting the captivity of his fellow birds. Rhoda Chase's delicate pen-and-ink illustrations beautifully complement the narrative, while her charming coloured cover design gives this little volume much of its distinctive appeal. An attractive example of early twentieth-century American children's fantasy.
The author: Rupert Hughes (1872–1956) was a prolific American novelist, playwright, biographer, composer, and screenwriter whose career spanned literature, theatre, and the emerging motion-picture industry. A versatile and highly productive writer, he was particularly known for his popular fiction and his ability to move between humour, romance, social observation, and imaginative storytelling. He was also the uncle of the celebrated American aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes.
Although best remembered for his novels, biographies, and work in early Hollywood, Hughes also wrote for younger readers. The Fairy Detective reveals his playful imagination and gift for dialogue, presenting a fantastical world in which animals possess personalities, grievances, and social customs of their own. The book's appeal is enhanced by the work of Rhoda Chase, whose expressive illustrations bring the characters and their adventures vividly to life.