1928 Rare First Edition - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Arthur Rackham
Washington Irving’s enduring American ghost story in the desirable 1928 Arthur Rackham edition, complete with all eight colour plates, richly illustrated throughout, and retaining its scarce pictorial dust jacket.
Author: Washington Irving.
Title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Publisher: London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1928.
Edition: First Edition of this Arthur Rackham illustrated edition.
Language: English.
Pages: 102 pages.
Size: 10 x 8 inches.
Binding: Near fine original green cloth binding, beautifully decorated and lettered in gilt to the upper board and spine, with top edge gilt. Complete with the original pictorial dust jacket in good to very good condition, showing age toning, edge wear, small chips and losses, most noticeably along the upper edge and at the head of the spine, as shown. The jacket is protected in a removable clear cover.
Content: Near fine content, clean, bright and well preserved. Illustrated endpapers, with the attractive pictorial bookplate of Winifred Funston to the front pastedown.
Illustrations: Complete with eight full-page colour plates by Arthur Rackham, including the frontispiece, together with numerous black-and-white illustrations, silhouettes, decorative headings and other designs throughout the text.
Estimate: $500–650 USD.
The book:
First published in 1820 as part of Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has become one of the defining supernatural tales in American literature. Set in the secluded Hudson Valley community of Sleepy Hollow, the story follows the lanky and superstitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, his courtship of Katrina Van Tassel, and his terrifying nocturnal encounter with the legendary Headless Horseman.
This handsome 1928 first edition is particularly desirable for the extraordinary collaboration between Irving’s atmospheric tale and Arthur Rackham’s imagination. Rackham’s mixture of delicate colour, sinuous line and grotesque fantasy is exceptionally well suited to Irving’s world of spectral riders, twisted trees and uneasy autumn landscapes. The survival of the original illustrated dust jacket adds considerably to the appeal of this copy.
The author:
Washington Irving (1783–1859) was one of the first American writers to achieve international literary recognition. Born in New York City, he became celebrated for essays, biographies and short fiction combining humour, folklore, history and the supernatural. His best-known tales, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, helped establish a distinctly American literary mythology rooted in the landscape and traditions of the Hudson River Valley.
The illustrator:
Arthur Rackham (1867–1939) was one of the foremost illustrators of the Golden Age of British book illustration. His unmistakable style, combining intricate pen work, muted colour and an extraordinary gift for the uncanny, transformed editions of fairy tales, legends and literary classics into some of the most sought-after illustrated books of the early twentieth century.
Rackham was particularly at home with stories in which the everyday world shades into the supernatural, making The Legend of Sleepy Hollow an ideal subject for him. His eight colour plates and numerous monochrome designs capture both the humour of Irving’s characters and the increasingly sinister atmosphere surrounding Ichabod Crane’s celebrated midnight ride.