Books

ONE OF ONLY 20 COPIES OF THE EDITION DE GRAND LUXE. The limitation page states that these 20 copies were to be numbered and signed by the artist. This copy neither numbered nor signed. Quarto half red morocco over red cloth-covered boards. Spine with raised bands and heavily gilt in compartments. Complete with 51 exquisite full-page mounted color plates by Rackham, each with a plain tissue guard. Printed on papier du Japon. Text in French. Frontispiece, title, introduction and 69 pages of text followed by one page with a b/w pictorial device and the 50 plates mounted on heavy paper. Uncut and largely unopened. Light scuffing at the spine tips and joints, else a fine copy. Rare in this edition. Not in Latimore.

Rip Van Winkle is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, published in 1819 as part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The story is set in New York's Catskill Mountains and follows Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American villager who falls asleep before the American Revolution and wakes up twenty years later to a very different world. His disappearance and return are met with incredulity by those around him. This tale is known for its themes of change and continuity, the American past, and individualism.