CHILDREN'S & ILLUSTRATED 100 Large-paper limited first edition, one of only 75 copies on handmade paper, signed by Oscar Wilde and the publisher David Nutt. Extraordinarily rare. “Wilde’s reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales… He presents the stories like sacraments of a lost faith… Their occasional social satire is subordinated to a sadness unusual in fairy tales” (Ellmann, 299). Wilde wrote these tales for his own children. He told Richard La Gallienne that “It is the duty of every father… to write fairy tales for his children.” His children later wrote of their father’s “never-ending supply” of fairy tales and tales of adventure, which he often told to calm them down. Many of his stories were unfortunately never put to paper, but the ones that do survive are considered to be examples of his most creative writing. In addition to the title story, this collection includes “The Nightingale and the Rose,” “The Selfish Giant,” “The Devoted Friend,” and “The Remarkable Rocket.” Wilde commented that he intended these stories “partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the child-like faculties of wonder and joy” (Hart-Davis, Letters of Oscar Wilde, 219). Plates and text fine, light foxing to endpapers, slightest soiling and very mild toning to extremities of boards, far less than usual, and small bump to lower corner. A most superior copy, about-fine. “When I Was Alive And Had A Human Heart, I Did Not Know What Tears Were” 110WILDE, Oscar. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. London, 1888. Quarto, original full Japan vellum over beveled boards, custom clamshell box. $48,500
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