The Magic World

Published: 1912. First Edition. DESCRIPTION: Red cloth with gilt titles and illustration to front and spine. Illustrated with 24 black and white plates by H.R. Millar and Spencer Pryse. Language: English. Book Condition: Fair: Light wear to corners, edges and spine ends. Rubbed cloth with minor marks. Lightly sunned spine. Tightly bound. Previous repair with first seventeen pages slightly offset to main block, see photo. Cracked endpapers with weakened rear hinge. Minor spotting to title page and frontis. Two pen lines to text block edge. All plates present. DJ Condition: No DJ Pages 280, 4pp catalogue. Size: 19.5cm by 13cm. AUTHOR: Edith Nesbit(Edith Bland; 1858 - 1924) was an English writer and poet, who published herbooks for childrenasE. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist and co-founder of theFabian Society, asocialistorganisation later affiliated to theLabour Party. Born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of an agricultural chemist,John Collis Nesbit and Sarah Green (née Alderton). In 1877, at the age of 18, Nesbit met the bank clerkHubert Bland, and at seven months pregnant, she married Bland on 22 April 1880. Their marriage was tumultuous. In 1886, when she discovered that her friend,Alice Hoatson, was pregnant by him. She had previously agreed to adopt Hoatsons child and allow Hoatson to live with her as their housekeeper. After she discovered the truth, she suggested that Hoatson and the baby,Rosamund, should leave; her husband threatened to leave Edith. Hoatson remained with them as a housekeeper and secretary and became pregnant by Bland again 13 years later. Edith again adopted Hoatsons child, John. Nesbit admired the artist andMarxiansocialistWilliam Morris. The couple joined the founders of theFabian Societyin 1884,and jointly edited its journalToday. Nesbit was a prolific lecturer and writer on socialism in the 1880s. She and her husband co-wrote under the pseudonym "Fabian Bland". She was a guest speaker at theLondon School of Economics, which had been founded by other Fabian Society members. On 20 February 1917, some three years after Bland died, Nesbit married Thomas "the Skipper" Tucker inWoolwich, where he was captain of theWoolwich Ferry. Towards the end of her life, Nesbit moved first to Crowlink. Nesbit died in 1924, probably from lung cancer (she "smoked incessantly"),and was buried in the churchyard ofSt Mary in the Marsh. Nesbits biographer, Julia Briggs, names her "the first modern writer for children", who "helped to reverse the great tradition of childrens literature inaugurated byLewis Carroll,George MacDonaldandKenneth Grahame, in turning away from theirsecondary worldsto the tough truths to be won from encounters with things-as-they-are, previously the province of adult novels". Briggs also credits Nesbit with inventing the childrensadventure story. The creator of modernchildrens fantasy, she influenced many later writers, includingP. L. Travers(ofMary Poppins),J. K. Rowling and C. S. Lewiswho paid heed to her in theNarniaseriesand mentions the Bastable children inThe Magicians Nephew. Nesbit also wrote for adults, including eleven novels, short stories, and four collections of horror stories. BOOK RESUME: This collection of delightful modern fairy tales dates from 1912, when Edith Nesbit was already well-established as the godmother of childrens literature. It contains twelve stories that combine classic fairy-tale elements with modern concepts in a deliciously witty way. And almost every one of the stories is as full of fun and magic for todays children as it was nearly a century ago. At her imaginative best, Nesbit takes us through such tales as The Cat-hood of Maurice, The Mixed Mine, Accidental Magic, The Princess and the Hedge-pig, The Related Muff, Justnowland, Kenneth and the Carp, and more.