Cambridge, MA: Ticknor and Fields, 1866. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Small blue octavo with decorative gilt stamping; gilt edges; brown endpapers; iv, 327 pages frontispiece, plates, portraits 20 cm Very good (+) for age; pages unmarked save for elegant ink inscription on front flyleaf from 1866; binding tight; slight edgewear to boards; toning and foxing to leaves;. Hardcover.
A selection of poems and writing from prominent authors and poets. "The pleasant books, that silently among/Our household treasures take familiar places,/And are to us as if a living tongue/Spake from the printed leaves or pictured faces!"--Opening quote from Longfellow. Includes an early appearance of Cristina Rossetti's Goblin Market, as well as SIr Thomas Browne on Dreams, most likley from his Religio Medici. “We are somewhat more than ourselves in our sleeps; and the slumber of the body seems to be but the waking of the soul.”
