The Box of Delights. Or When the Wolves Were Running.

MASEFIELD, John.

Published by London: William Heinemann, 1935

First edition of the author's influential fantasy novel. "Long before Harry Potter, The Box of Delights remade children's fantasy" (Torday). In The Telegraph in 2020 a headline stated "You'd never have J. K. Rowling without John Masefield". The first edition is comparatively scarce, and copies in the dust jacket are rare. The print-run for The Box of Delights was inexplicably low. Masefield's previous novel, The Taking of the Gry, was published in an edition of 10,000 copies in 1934. After The Box of Delights was published in an edition of 7,500 copies, Heinemann published Victorious Troy in an edition of 15,000 copies in 1935. Masefield's previous story for children, The Midnight Folk, had been published in 15,000 copies in 1927. The Box of Delights is, therefore, a comparatively rare book. All the other titles noted here were also published in signed limited issues. There was no such issue of The Box of Delights. The novel was first adapted for radio broadcast in 1943 (with repeats or new adaptations in 1948, 1955, 1966, 1977, 1995, and 2011). The BBC TV series featuring Robert Stephens, Patricia Quinn and Patrick Troughton was first broadcast in 1984. A musical version was performed in 1994 and 1996, and a theatrical adaptation was staged in 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2023-24. An audio adaptation starring Derek Jacobi was released in 2021. Many authors, including Angela Carter, C. S. Lewis, Alan Garner, and Neil Gaiman have noted the influence of the book on their writing. C. S. Lewis first read The Box of Delights in 1959 and wrote to a friend that "it is. a unique work and will often be re-read. The beauties, all the 'delights' that keep on emerging from the box - are so exquisite, and quite unlike anything I have seen elsewhere" (Lewis, p. 1026). Errington A115(a). C. S. Lewis, Collected Letters: Volume III, 2006; Piers Torday, "Long Before Harry Potter", The Guardian, 30 November 2017. Octavo. With 26 vignettes by Judith Masefield, one illustration by the author. Original blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, pictorial endpapers printed in black, red, and blue, top edge dark blue. With dust jacket. Illegible ownership signature on preliminary blank. Head and foot of spine a little bumped, extremities a little rubbed in places, minor mark to top edge, patch of discolouration on preliminary blank, contents unusually clean; crease to spine of unclipped jacket, extremities worn with short tears and minor loss, some foxing and light soiling: a near-fine copy in a very good jacket. Seller Inventory # 183361

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Box of Delights. Or When the Wolves Were...
Publisher: London: William Heinemann, 1935
Edition: 1st Edition