A Fantastical Pictorial Map for Children

"A Map of Fairyland - A Country of Strange and Wonderful Places, Fairies, Witches Dragons & Giants [with] The Magic Map Book",

This delightful children's book was written by May Byron with illustrations by Alan Wright. It is accompanied by a wonderful pictorial map showing the island of "Fairyland." It features an assortment of fantastical creatures surrounding an enchanted castle including an oversized snowman, two dragons, a giant, a witch, and an anthropomorphized moon. The 46 (of 52) pages of text are accompanied by many wonderful illustrations including: "Making Dew Drops in the Jeweller's Shop", "The Giant Who Smiled on Every Child", and "Lollipop Land Is Perfectly Grand." An inscription on the front endpaper states "This book is given as a reward for thirteen Sundays of perfect attendance" and signed by Friedens Evangelical Church (Wisconsin). Oblong quarto, hardbound in pictorial boards. Published by Hodder & Stoughton in both London and New York. There are no auction records or dealer listings for this book in the last 35 years.

This map was featured in the Harvard Houghton Library exhibition last year: Landmarks: Maps as Literary Illustration.

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Condition: B+

Condition code is for the folding map, which has separated from the inside front board and has a 1" repaired edge tear at top and a couple of small abrasions in the lower portion of the image. Contents are uniformly lightly toned and somewhat brittle with a few pages having small edge chips. The binding is partially broken resulting in about half of the pages being loose. Covers have average shelf wear and bumped edges. Map (B+), Contents/Binding (B).