The Indian Fairy Book. Illustrated by Florence Choate and Elizabeth Curtis. Illustrated Edition. Frederick A. Stokes Company. New York, 1916.

In this collection, the 1869 adaptations of Native American folklore by Cornelius Mathews are compiled into a children’s book with illustrations by Florence Choate and Elizabeth Curtis. Mathews’ adaptations come from the work of Henry H. Schoolcraft, husband of Bamewawagezhikaquay, the Ojibwe writer who supplied most of the cultural information in the stories. They are, in other words, one collection of Native American folklore from a mostly Ojibwe perspective, but packaged in the form of a colonizer’s children’s book. These stories were quite popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This illustrated edition is noteworthy because of the contributions of both Choate and Curtis–two notable book illustrators from the era. It is also part of a series of fairytale books from various cultures around the globe.

This illustrated edition is in very good condition. In the original pictorial cloth, very good with only rubbing and soiling minor pencil marks to front board. Text block very good, edges rubbed and soiled. Former owner inscriptions to endpapers. Hinge cracked at back endpaper.

A very good illustrated edition of The Indian Fairy Book.