Queen of the Pirate Isles

[GREENAWAY, Kate]. The Queen of the Pirate Isle. By Bret Harte. Illustrated by Kate Greenaway. Engraved and Printed by Edmund Evans. London: Chatto and Windus [1886]. 8vo, 58pp. Brown-gray boards pictorially stamped in gilt, black, red, brown, yellow, orange, and blue. Color illustrations throughout. Boards soiled, spine ends a tad rubbed, hinges starting, else an internally clean, bright copy. Inscribed by the artist, Kate Greenaway, with a 2 ½-inch x 2-inch ink drawing of a classic Greenaway girl holding a muff.

First edition, binding state “b.” A group of children in a small California mining town head off to play at a nearby mine and find themselves on an adventure that straddles the line between imagination and reality. Wonderfully captured in Greenaway’s iconic style, this charming, late Victorian picture book is a delight!