The Fairy-Land of Science
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1891. Very Good / Very Good. Item #32872
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1891. Later Printing. Octavo (19cm.); publisher's green pictorial cloth stamped in black and gilt, in cream pictorial dust jacket repeating the same illustration as the binding in black and coral pink (probably once red), brown glazed endpapers; viii,244pp. A few small chips and closed tears to jacket margins, the whole a bit unevenly toned, especially spine panel, corners very slightly nudged, cloth spine a bit spotted, textblock a shade toned, else a Very Good example in the rare jacket.
Immensely popular collection of lectures on science for children by one of the most successful popularizers of science and evolution of her day. For more than a decade, between 1864 and 1875, the author worked as the secretary to Sir Charles Lyell, a geologist and close associate of Darwin's and during this time Buckley became "personally familiar with the leading scientists of the day."
The lectures collected here were first delivered at St. John's Wood in 1877 "to a large audience of children and their friends," generating immediate interest by the way the author "borrowed the language of fairy stories and wizardry to reinforce her ultimate belief that the wonders of science not only parallel but surpassed the wonders of fairy land." Lectures included "Sunbeams, and the work they do"; "A drop of water on its travels"; "The Life of a Primrose"; and "The history of a piece of coal."
See the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for more information.
Price: $1,250.00