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[Aldin, illus.] Sewell, Anna BLACK BEAUTY. The Autobiography of a Horse London by Jarrolds for Boots Pure Drug Company 1915

The first edition in this format. With 18 very beautiful tipped-in color plates by Cecil Aldin. 4to, publisher's original deep blue cloth with gilt pictorial upper cover featuring an all over image of a young horse with its mother in an ideal country setting, lettered and ruled in gilt on spine and cover. viii, 291 pp. A fine, bright copy, with some mild foxing as is almost always found on this title.

SCARCE BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED PRINTING. One of the finest and most beautiful edition of Black Beauty that we've ever seen. Aldin's colour plates are vivid and expressive yet very natural. The binding is lovely and the presentation large and rich. The first edition of the book with Cecil Aldin's illustrations was issued by Jarrolds in 1912. The book was republished in this format to be uniform with other titles that Boots the Chemists had issued, such as THE WATER BABIES with Jessie Wilcox Smith's illustrations, ALICE IN WONDERLAND with Gwynedd Hudson's illustrations, and ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES with illustrations by W. Heath Robinson--all of which are beautiful presentations.
BLACK BEAUTY is the only book Anna Sewell ever wrote. It is a timeless story which relates events in the life of a horse which suffers great cruelty and despair but for whom there is the ultimate eventuality of a happy home. This novel became an immediate success and in its day caused the altering of human behaviour towards and treatment of domesticated animals. Unfortunately Anna Sewell would never realize her dream of experiencing the changes she wrote and fought for as she died only a few months after the book's publication having never received more then £20 for her literary efforts. The novel struck home in an immediate and especially meaningful way for animal lovers and for animal rights activists in their struggles for the humane treatment of animals. In the intervening years since its publication it has become a revered classic of the highest order . It has become known as the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the horse

$US350

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