Mrs. Molesworth. "Grandmother Dear" A Book for Boys and Girls; Illustrated by Walter Crane. London: MacMillan and Co., 1886. New Edition. [10841]
Green publisher's cloth, decorated in black and gilt, gilt bright on the front cover, dull on the spine, 7 x 5 inches, tight. Frontispiece with detached tissue guard, light offsetting to the title page from the t.g., six (of seven) additional b/w plates. 262 clean pages; the last plate called for is not present. Good. Hardcover.
A story of teenage girls, their grandmother, and Christmas. First published in 1878, early editions such as this one is are uncommon on the market.
The illustrator, Walter Crane (1845-1915), an English artist associated the the Arts & Crafts movement, "considered to be the most influential, among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation, and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the later 19th century." - wikipedia.
Mary Louisa Stewart Molesworth (1839-1921), born to English parents at Rotterdam, Netherlands; d. London, England. A prolific writer of novels and stories for children, over 100 works are attributed to her.
"Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and Brontës, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice." - Roger Lancelyn Green, Mrs. Molesworth (1961).
