Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1878.

First edition of Jewett’s second publication, and the first of her collected short stories. A previous owner has sometime taken a pencil rubbing from the cover vignette, which is here loosely inserted.

A series of tales for children, many including animals, which was published just one year after her first novel, Deephaven. Tales include “The Best China Saucer”, “The Kitten’s Ghost” and “The Pepper-Owl”, among others. Jewett continued to write sporadically for children during the course of her lifetime, alongside her novels and short story collections for adults; most notably, her children’s books included The Story of the Normans (1887) and Betty Leicester (1890).

A charming collection of tales full of local colour.

4to., brown cloth lettered, lined and decorated in gilt to upper board and spine, with the charming vignettes of three owls sitting atop branches; brown coated endpapers; pp. [vii], 6-213, [v]; binding rubbed, with a little loss of colour to the boards; sometime retouched in brown to spine ends; a little chipping and loss of cloth at the tips and corners; a few light spots throughout, but internally very good.