RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator; Ford, Julia Ellsworth — Imagina

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1923. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham Finely Bound by Bayntun of Bath [RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. FORD, Julia Ellsworth. Imagina. With Illustrations by Arthur Rackham and Lauren Ford. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, [1923]. Second edition (first published in New York in 1914 by Duffield & Company). Quarto (9 3/8 x 7 inches; 238 x 178 mm.). [12], 178, [1], [1, blank] pp. Two color plates by Arthur Rackham (including frontispiece) and numerous black and white drawings in the text by Lauren Ford. Bound by Bayntun of Bath ca. 1960 in three-quarter blue morocco over blue cloth boards, spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments pale blue end-papers, top edge gilt. Spine and top corner of front cover slightly faded, otherwise a near fine copy. A wee young, motherless boy, a dreamer who secretly loves poetry, yearns to be held and loved by the beautiful woman he has conjured in his mind in the dim moonlight - Imagina - and communes with trees, birds, flowers, and his dog, Kit, all of whom understand and accept him as he is rather than how his no-nonsense guardian would prefer him to be. "Julia Ellsworth Ford (1859-1950) was a New York socialite, art collector and patron, and author of children's books. She was married to Simeon Ford, a financier and co-owner of the Grand Union Hotel in New York. Ford presided over a salon that included the Lebanese mystic Kahlil Gibran, Irish poet W. B. Yeats, and American dancer Isadora Duncan. Her published works include: Simeon Solomon: An Appreciation (1908), Imagina (1914), and Snickerty Nick (1919), among others" (Yale University, Julia Ellsworth Ford papers). Riall, p. 123. See Latimore and Haskell, p. 42. .