London & New York: William Heinemann / Doubleday, 1925. First thus. Edition deluxe, number 30 of 175 numbered and signed by Arthur Rackham. A Near Fine copy. Quarto (11 x 7 3/4 in; 281 x 200 mm.). x, [2,], 227, [1, blank] pp. With four color-plates including frontispiece, and sixteen line drawings. Quarter black buckram over cream paper boards. Spine tooled in gilt., top edge gilt. Partially unopened. Bookplate on front pastedown.

Where the Blue Begins is a delightful cross between a satire on polite society and a fable about finding meaning in life. American author, Christopher Morley uses anthropomorphized dogs to tell his thought-provoking tale about a bachelor dog named Gissing, who leaves his life in the suburban Canine Estates and sets out on an existential quest. The story appeared two years after Morley's collection of humorous essays, Pipefuls. What breed of dog was Gissing? Read the story and find out…

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children’s books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic—from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe.

Latimore and Haskell, p. 60. Riall, p.154. Near Fine (Item #6387)