The Fairy Books: Blue (1889); Red (1890); Green (1892); Yellow (1894); Pink; (1897); Grey (1900); Violet (1901); Crimson (1903); Brown (1904); Orange (1906); Olive (1907); Lilac (1910) [with The Blue Poetry Book (1891); The True Story Book (1893); The Red True Story Book (1895); The Animal Story Book (1896); The Arabian Nights Entertainments (1898); The Red Book of Animal Stories (1899); The Book of Romance (1902); The Red Romance Book (1905)].

LANG, Andrew.

Item Number: 14052

London: Longmans, Green & Company, 1889-1910.

First editions of each volume in Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books: Blue (1889); Red (1890); Green (1892); Yellow (1894); Pink; (1897); Grey (1900); Violet (1901); Crimson (1903); Brown (1904); Orange (1906); Olive (1907); Lilac (1910) (12 volumes), along with eight of his other works: The Blue Poetry Book (1891); The True Story Book (1893); The Red True Story Book (1895); The Animal Story Book (1896); The Arabian Nights Entertainments (1898); The Red Book of Animal Stories (1899); The Book of Romance (1902); The Red Romance Book (1905). Bound in full leather by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, each volume with a different motif to the front and rear panel, all edges gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, book marks. Each volume bound with the original cloth spine and front panel. With numerous illustrations by H. J. Ford. In near fine condition with a few volumes with some light cracking at the hinges. An exceptional set bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe.

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books are a series of twelve collections of fairy tales, published between 1889 and 1910. Each volume is distinguished by its own color. In all, 437 tales from a range of cultures and countries are presented. Lang's urge to gather and publish fairy tales was rooted in his own experience with the folk and fairy tales of his home territory along the English-Scottish border. At the time he worked, English fairy-tale collections were rare: Dinah Maria Mulock Craik's The Fairy Book (1869) was a lonely precedent. When Lang began his efforts, he "was fighting against the critics and educationists of the day", who judged the traditional tales' "unreality, brutality, and escapism to be harmful for young readers, while holding that such stories were beneath the serious consideration of those of mature age" (Roger Lancelyn Green).