Down-Adown-Derry, A Book of Fairy Poems. With Illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop. London: Constable & Co. ltd, 1922. First Edition, Limited Issue. Original paper parchment-like boards, gilt-stamped central vignette, gilt-lettered spine. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Light shelf-wear & browning to boards, head of spine worn along hinge; contents page in nice bright condition.

Limited Edition of 325 Numbered Copies, Signed by Walter de la Mare.

Illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop with three full-page tissue-guarded colour plates plus a profusion of truly beautiful black-and-white full-page plates that reproduce with much detail and clarity on the fine quality paper.

Down-Adown-Derry, is a phrase drawn from the realm of fairy lore (echoing Shakespeare’s The Tempest and traditional ballads), and the book contains some of de la Mare’s most ethereal and hauntingly beautiful poems, gathered under the titles: Fairies; Witched & Witchcraft and The World of Dreams.

Dorothy P. Lathrop (1891-1980) was an American artist who helped define the visual language of fairy illustration in the early 20th century. For this volume, her illustrations are typically delicate pen-and-ink drawings, often with subtle washes, that perfectly capture the quiet wonder, melancholy, and otherworldly loneliness of de la Mare’s verse.