STUART, Ruth McEnery; [Jessie Willcox Smith (illus.)]

Sonny's Father

New York: The Century Co., 1910. First Edition. Octavo (18cm); light green decorative cloth, stamped in black, dark green, and gilt; top edge gilt; 240pp, frontis., 10 plates. Boards moderately soiled and toned; mild edgewear and rubbing. Textblock shows reading wear, with light smudging throughout; dackled edges. Overall just about Very Good.

Louisiana native Ruth McEnery Stuart, contemporary of Grace King and Kate Chopin, was especially known as an author and orator of "dialect" stories. Sonny's Father, the sequel to her popular Sonny: A Christmas Guest (1896) is written entirely in a southern dialect, as narrated by the eponymous father of Sonny, a precocious (and frankly spoiled rotten) boy who was born on Christmas day. Of particular interest may be our narrator's report of a suffrage meeting he attended and supported. Illustrators are not credited, but plates at pgs. 44 and 156 can be identified as the work of Jessie Willcox Smith.

Price: $25.00

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