Item #17207 The Sea and its Wonders. Mary and Elizabeth Kirby.
The Sea and its Wonders.
The Sea and its Wonders.
The Sea and its Wonders.
The Sea and its Wonders.
The Sea and its Wonders.
The Sea and its Wonders.

The Sea and its Wonders.

London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1902. Later edition of this book on the flora and fauna of the ocean for children. First published by in1884. Frontispiece, illustrated title, and 166 text illustrations. Prize bookplate of the Walthamstow Education Committee awarding the book to a Charles Woodbridge at the Forest Road Boys’ School. Offsetting to front flyleaves. Otherwise, very clean throughout. A very good, clean copy. Publisher’s light brown pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and blind. Green pattered endpapers. All edges gilt. Octavo. xii, 304 pp. Item #17207

Elizabeth Kirby (1823 – 1873) and Mary Kirby (later Gregg, 1817 – 1893) were children’s book authors and science writers. Mary’s most important work was the Flora of Leicestershire (1848), which she wrote with naturalist Andrew Bloxam. The first edition, which was published with every other page left blank, asked readers to fill in additional botanical information. The 1850 edition compiled these contributions for a total of over nine hundred species. Together, the sisters published popular science texts on botany, entomology, marine biology, and more over the course of twenty-five years.

The Kirbys also wrote didactic works for children, including Julia Maitland; or, Pride Goes Before a Fall (1857), which emphasized the value of young women’s education, and the collection of short stories The Discontented Children (1855).

Price: $250.00

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