The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion
London: Macmillan and Company, 1890.
First edition, first printings. Complete in two volumes. xii, [2], 409, [3]; [vi], 407, [1] pp. with 2 advertising pages at rear of first volume. Bound in publisher's green cloth lettered in gilt, gilt-stamped mistletoe motif to each front board, dark green endpapers. Very Good+ with light rubbing to extremities and mottling to cloth. Previous owners' names to fly-leaves and half-titles. Offsetting to title page of first volume. PMM 374. Garrison & Morton 184.
The uncommon first appearance of the landmark study of religion and mythology across cultures. Frazer's magnum opus altered the thinking of a generation of writers, including T.S. Eliot, who wrote in his notes to The Wasteland: "To another work of anthropology I am indebted in general, one which has influenced our generation profoundly; I mean The Golden Bough."
Price: $5,500