Storytime : a little book for little people

London : Henry Frowde, [1912?] Quarto, decorated wrappers with pictorial inlay, stringboard, colour frontispiece by Arthur Rackham, pp. [38], colour plate by Rosa Petherick, numerous text illustrations, some with red block colour signed by L. A. Govey and L. Runoff, pale foxing, housed in the publisher’s original illustrated card envelope, with manuscript address dated 1913. A fine copy of a rare children’s book.

‘Herbert Strang’, or, occasionally for variety, ‘Mrs. Herbert Strang’, was the nom-de-plume used by the prolific writers George Herbert Ely and James L’Estrange to author their children’s books, the name being a combination of the two writer’s names. Theirs was one of the most successful literary partnerships extant, lasting 36 years and authoring several hundred volumes. The Rackham plate (dated ’06) was originally published in the artist’s edition of Peter Pan and is included here to illustrate a different story altogether.

Not recorded by Hudson or Riall.

A single copy located in the trade (John Windle, San Francisco, catalogue 43, 2007, item 106, USD $2750).

Rare, with copies only recorded at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Osborn Collection, Toronto Public Library (acquired in 2009).