Robin Hood and the Men of the Greenwood (Easton Press Collector's Edition)
GILBERT, Henry (illus. Walter Crane). Robin Hood and the Men of the Greenwood. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 2013.
Large Octavo. Full green leather. Spine with raised bands, 22-carat gilt accents. All edges gilt. Printed endpapers. Satin ribbon page marker. xi, [pagination to be confirmed] pp. 17 full-colour plates by Walter Crane throughout. Cloth slipcase with titling and decorations in gilt and black. Collector's Edition.
The legend of Robin Hood — outlaw, archer, lord of Sherwood Forest, redistributor of wealth from the comfortable to the desperate — is among the oldest and most persistent in English popular culture, traceable in ballad form to at least the fourteenth century and in continuous literary elaboration ever since. Henry Gilbert's retelling, first published by T. C. & E. C. Jack in Edinburgh in 1912, remains one of the most satisfying prose versions of the legend for the directness of its narrative, its feel for the texture of medieval England, and its clear sympathy for the outlaws' cause. Gilbert wrote the book the year after his King Arthur's Knights for the same publisher and the same audience — readers old enough to appreciate the political dimensions of the material alongside the adventure.
The illustrations Walter Crane produced for the 1912 edition are among the most distinguished he made in the final years of his career. Crane (1845–1915) was one of the central figures of the English Arts and Crafts movement, a close associate of William Morris, and the most accomplished book illustrator of his generation in the medievalising mode that the movement had made its own. His plates for Robin Hood — characterised by strong outlines, flat decorative colour, elaborate borders, and a compositional confidence that draws on both Pre-Raphaelite painting and Japanese woodblock — are entirely at home in the material. The forest and the greenwood, the sheriff's hall and the archery contest, the yeoman and the nobleman face to face: Crane understood the iconography of the legend as fully as Gilbert understood its narrative, and the result of their collaboration is a book in which text and image are genuinely in accord.
The Easton Press Collector's Edition of 2013 reproduces the complete Gilbert text with all 17 full-colour Crane plates, bound in full green leather with gilt-decorated spine and presented in a matching illustrated cloth slipcase.
Fine. Volume and slipcase free from imperfections, presenting beautifully and as new.
This book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000574
Description
GILBERT, Henry (illus. Walter Crane). Robin Hood and the Men of the Greenwood. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 2013.
Large Octavo. Full green leather. Spine with raised bands, 22-carat gilt accents. All edges gilt. Printed endpapers. Satin ribbon page marker. xi, [pagination to be confirmed] pp. 17 full-colour plates by Walter Crane throughout. Cloth slipcase with titling and decorations in gilt and black. Collector's Edition.
The legend of Robin Hood — outlaw, archer, lord of Sherwood Forest, redistributor of wealth from the comfortable to the desperate — is among the oldest and most persistent in English popular culture, traceable in ballad form to at least the fourteenth century and in continuous literary elaboration ever since. Henry Gilbert's retelling, first published by T. C. & E. C. Jack in Edinburgh in 1912, remains one of the most satisfying prose versions of the legend for the directness of its narrative, its feel for the texture of medieval England, and its clear sympathy for the outlaws' cause. Gilbert wrote the book the year after his King Arthur's Knights for the same publisher and the same audience — readers old enough to appreciate the political dimensions of the material alongside the adventure.
The illustrations Walter Crane produced for the 1912 edition are among the most distinguished he made in the final years of his career. Crane (1845–1915) was one of the central figures of the English Arts and Crafts movement, a close associate of William Morris, and the most accomplished book illustrator of his generation in the medievalising mode that the movement had made its own. His plates for Robin Hood — characterised by strong outlines, flat decorative colour, elaborate borders, and a compositional confidence that draws on both Pre-Raphaelite painting and Japanese woodblock — are entirely at home in the material. The forest and the greenwood, the sheriff's hall and the archery contest, the yeoman and the nobleman face to face: Crane understood the iconography of the legend as fully as Gilbert understood its narrative, and the result of their collaboration is a book in which text and image are genuinely in accord.
The Easton Press Collector's Edition of 2013 reproduces the complete Gilbert text with all 17 full-colour Crane plates, bound in full green leather with gilt-decorated spine and presented in a matching illustrated cloth slipcase.
Fine. Volume and slipcase free from imperfections, presenting beautifully and as new.
This book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000574
