Burnside Rare Books

Little Lord Fauntleroy [with] Sara Crewe, Little Saint Elisabeth, And Other Stories

Burnett, Frances Hodgson; Reginald B. Birch [illustrator]

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914, 1915.

Two volumes, each signed by Frances Hodgson Burnett and inscribed to Victoria Buel on the front free endpaper. ix, 290; x, 236 pp. Bound in publisher's cream cloth with decorative stamping in red, green and gilt. Good condition with toning, moderate soiling, and a few stray pencil marks to covers, foxing to covers and textblock edges. Sarah Crew binding cracked at page 41, foxing to prelims. Front hinge of Little Lord Fauntleroy exposed and very tender, soiling and paper loss to first two leaves.

Rare association copies, inscribed to the sister-in-law of Burnett's son Vivian, the model for Little Lord Fauntleroy. Victoria Buel was the younger half-sister of Constance Buel, who married Vivian Burnett in 1914. The inscription to Little Lord Fauntleroy reads "Yours Affectionately," while the inscription to Sarah Crew is longer: "To dear little Victoria Torrilhon Buel with the love of her affectionate relative. Jan 1916."

Victoria was about nine years old when these books were gifted to her. She married Hugh Currie Thompson in 1935, and her married name is written in pencil at the top of the page, above an older label bearing her maiden name. Item #140947239

Price: $3,500