Product Description
Fourteenth overall edition, 1930.
Originally published in 1907 by Paul Elder and followed by this revised edition in 1917 by Dodd, Mead.
Signed and dated "Jan.
1933" on the front free endpaper.
Uncommon signed.
Wonderful and whimsical, this book humorously distinguishes between look-alike plant and animals via woodcut illustration and verse.
Apparently Robert Williams Wood was inspired to produce this satire by the "nature fakers"controversy, epitomized by John Burroughs criticizing William Long for being overly anthropomorphic and dishonest in his reporting about wild animals.
The introduction reads: "By other Nature books I'm sure, / You've often been misled, / You've tired a wall-flower to secure.
/ And "picked a hen" instead .
.
.
" Some of the comparisons that follow include, quite ingeniously, "The Plover, The Clover" and "The Parrot, the Carrot" and so on (plant-to-plant and animal-to-animal comparisons are later introduced).
Born in Concord, MA, Robert Williams Wood was a physicist and inventor who distinguished himself in the field of optics--his work is important to our modern understanding of ultraviolet light--but clearly he also could rhyme with the best of them.
A very good copy in brown paper boards with green cloth spine.
Slight wear through paper at corners and fraying to spine ends.
Lacking a dust jacket.
A charming and historical book.
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