The American Continent and Its Inhabitants Before Its Discovery By Columbus. A Unique History Communicated By Robin Goodfellow, Fairy Historian. 2 Vols.

“Antiquarian Edition”, a delux edition with colourplates not in the original 1890 edition. (All colourplates c. 1893.) . xx + 479; 470 pp. Three quarter leather and pebbled cloth; spines rebacked; new endpapers over reinforced hinges; marbled edges. Illustrated with 30 photogravure steel plates, 30 colored lithographic plates, and numerous other illustrations by Henry N. Cady and others. Extremities rubbed with some light fading to spine gilt and lettering. ALL PLATES PRESENT, but colourplate listed as facing p. 259 is placed at p. 239, due to binder’s error. Ethnogaphy as it was told to children in the 1890’s. Though not sparing on details of Spanish cruelty to the natives in South America (there are a one or two grisly illustrations), massacres by Europeans of “the poor unenlightened creatures” and “savages” in North America are considered self-defence. We call this a children’s book because it’s narrated by Robin Goodfellow; however, either kids in the 1890s were significantly more literate than those in their own day, or this was the sort of book their parents would read to them. A profusely illustrated and hefty set with really quite gorgeous colourplates.