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MacDonald, George. At the Back of the North Wind . New York: George Routledge & Sons, 416 Broome Street, n.d. [c. 1871]. 12mo, pp. [i-v] vi-viii [1] 2-378 [note (379-380) is a fly leaf] [note: first leaf is a blank and is conjoined with the title leaf to form a separate initial gathering]. Original smooth navy blue pictorial cloth, front and spine panels elaborately stamped in gold and black, rear panel ruled in blind, all edges gilt, plain endpapers. Illustrated with 76 black-and-white drawings in text by Arthur Hughes. First U.S. edition, later printing or later issue. The present copy, with the same final page count and general design as the U.K. Strahan first, may have used sheets from that first U.K. printing, with the substitution of the first two conjoined leaves, the second supplying a new title page to indicate Routledge's New York branch as the book's publisher. The present copy does not agree exactly with either Sadleir's description of the U.S. first, nor with Shaberman, who gives "1871" as being present on the title page. It's also possible that this copy was printed anew utilizing (slightly modified) British plates. The signatures are gathered in 12s but signed in 8s. Early faded gift inscription dated Christmas 1876 on front free endpaper. Shaberman notes 1871 and 1882 Routledge editions, the present copy clearly belonging to the 1871 group. Light wear to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, front inner hinge discreetly strengthened, a nice copy otherwise of a very handsome binding of this important book. #3526. $350. A landmark of Victorian fantasy and the first of three novel-length fantasies the author wrote for a children's audience. ". by far the longest and most ambitious of George MacDonald's children's fantasies, combining, in a way that none of the others attempt to do, an allegorical and religious fantasy with a grim social realism." -- Stephen Pricket in Magill (ed.), Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature p. 63. The novel offers "genuine insight into a cosmic plan that is beyond normal comprehension." -- Tymn (ed), Fantasy Literature, p. 133. "The story is one of MacDonald's more inscrutable fantasies, suggestively rich and finally rather gloomy." -- Sutherland, Companion to Victorian Fiction, p. 32. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-114. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), p, 604. Waggoner, The Hills of Faraway 639. Reginald 15836.
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