London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1909. Deluxe edition. Number 126 of 750 copies numbered signed by Rackham on the limitation page. Complete with 13 mounted and captioned color plates without tissue guards. Bound in publisher's cream cloth with gilt title on cover and spine. Retaining 2 of the 4 original ties, exterior with some wear and discoloration. Gilt pictorial design on interior pastedowns and free endpapers with some blue staining on all. Ex-libris sticker for "M-E WILLIAMS" on interior front board. Top edge of text block gilt, rest uncut. Foxing to first tissue guard causing minor offsetting onto title page, but rest of interior pages clean.

“Gulliver’s Travels has given Swift an immortality beyond temporary fame...All those who had been fascinated by the realism and vivid detail of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe were captivated again, even though they knew that Gulliver must be fiction. The brilliance and thoroughness with which his logic and invention work out the piquancies of scale involved by the giant human among the Lilliputians, and then by a minikin Gulliver among the Brobdingnagians, ran away with the author’s original intention. Gulliver’s Travels has achieved the final apotheosis of a satirical fable, but it has also become a tale for children. For every edition designed for the reader with an eye to the historical background, twenty have appeared, abridged or adapted, for readers who care nothing for the satire and enjoy it as a first-class story” (Printing and the Mind of Man). Here, the narrative is brought to life with Rackham's exceptional illustrations, which highlight the humor as well as the darkness twisting through Swift's work.

This edition is a reprint of the 1900 edition, printed in a larger size with additional illustrations. Riall says "This edition includes an additional colored plate on pg. 65 featuring "The Lilliputian tailors measure Gulliver for a new suit of Clothes" (Rial)." However, in this edition instead of pg. 65, there is an additional plate on pg. 256 entitled "The Yahoos" and tipped in note after the title page explaining this addition.

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.

Riall 91. Very Good + (Item #6521)