1897 Scarce 1stED Book - AUSTRALIAN FAIRY TALES by Atha Westbury. Illustrated.
(description)
Author : Atha Westbury. (A. J. Johnson, illustrator).
Title : AUSTRALIAN FAIRY TALES.
Publisher : London : Ward, Lock, & Co., Limited, 1897. First Edition.
Language : Text in English.
Size : 8 " X 5 ".
Pages : 367 pages.
Binding : Good and still attractive full cloth binding (hinges fine, overall worn, soiled and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content :Good content (tight, first endpaper hinge worn but still tight, last blank free endpaper missing, some foxing and staining - as shown, handwritten number on top margin of title page - as shown).
Illustrations : Illustrated with 25 in-text and some full-page illustrations by A. J. Johnson.
The book : Very rare first edition of AUSTRALIAN FAIRY TALES by Atha Westbury.
The author: Frank Atha Westbury (5 May 1838 – 24 September 1901), who wrote under the pen names of "Atha" and "Atha Westbury", was a popular and prolific author of mystery adventure novels, children's stories and poetry in late 19th century Australia and New Zealand. Most of his fiction was serialised in newspapers and journals between 1879 and 1905. His two major works were: The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook, A Romance of Maoriland (1896) and Australian Fairy Tales (1897), which won him a place as one of the better-known writers for children in Victorian-era Australia. Many of his novels were adventure romances set in New Zealand at the time of the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, which the author experienced as a soldier in the British Army. He wrote extensively for children. Australian Elves, published by the Pictorial Australian in 1885 and Australian Fairy Tales (Ward Lock & Co London, 1897) were among the first to utilise the Australian landscape as the setting for fairy stories, a device that initially received mixed reactions from critics. As one reviewer in the Sydney Morning Herald remarked wryly in 1897: "One feels puzzled to meet brownie, kobold, gnome, dwarf and prince under our skies. Perhaps their small Highnesses, whose age is under double figures, may approve". Most of his fairy tales were about young men who started out in poverty but found riches through the intervention of a princess or magical being.