Books

Illustrated by 50 color plates by Arthur Rackham. The German edition of Rackham's Rip Van Winkle illustrations. The 50 plates are each mounted on dark green paper sheets. The text is in dark green paper covers. 46 pp.+ list of plates, both fit in a 12 in. x 9 1/2 in. cloth covered portfolio with a design of Rip van Winkle on the front cover, bound by Hubel & Denck. A few minor dark spots to cloth, slight buckling, small bend to inner flap, else, a fine set. Not in the Rackham bibliographies. Order of plates differs from the English edition.

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.