THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN STAR. A CHRISTMAS FAIRY STORY FOR ALL THE YEAR

8vo. (24 cm.) [10]11-221p. Color frontispiece by Jessie Shaw Fisher, which is also reproduced as the color onlay to the front cover, plus numerous black and white illustrations by William and Mary Herwig. Tan cloth blocked in green and with green letters on the front cover and the spine and with a color pictorial onlay to front cover. Minor wear to extremities with a couple of corners just barely worn through, top and bottom of spine just beginning to fray, cloth very lightly soiled, color pictorial onlay shows a bit of rubbing at the edges but is in very good condition, frontispiece fine, else near fine with no internal markings. No dust jacket. This is a juvenile piece of fiction in an unusual Honolulu imprint. Color frontispiece and cover onlay is a SciFi image of a fire goddess seated on her thrown with lightning bolts shooting out from her left hand and staring down at a green humanoid with bulging white eyes who is obviously making some sort of plea. Elsa Thomas Cross was born in Birmingham, England in 1884. She emigrated to the United States in 1911 eventually settling in Los Angeles where she was noted as a pianist. A review of her recital in the Los Angeles Times (May 24, 1915) described her playing as follows: WORK POSSESSES PECULIAR CHARM.: CELTIC AND HAWAIIAN INFLUENCES TRACED IN WORKOF ELSA CROSS. At age 34 Cross left San Francisco for Hawaii. There she published CHILD SONGS FROM HAWAII with text by Ermine Cross (1923) and appears in the 1930 U.S. Census as living in Honolulu. THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN STAR is apparently her only work of fiction and it is Science Fiction. Jessie Shaw Fisher was an Instructor in the Honolulu Academy of Design and also illustrated Cross' CHILD SONGS FROM HAWAII. William Herwig was born in Germany in 1860 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1883. He appears in the U.S. Census of 1930 as living in Los Angeles with his wife Mary E. Herwig. Later they also apparently traveled to Honolulu. This is an unusual piece of science fiction by a female author.…