MACDONALD, George (author). Arthur HUGHES (illustrator). Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood. London Blackie & Son Ltd. 1900

8vo. Original brown pictorial cloth pictorially stamped in black, mustard and gilt to spine and upper cover, edges olivine; pp. [viii] + 299 + 36 adverts.; illustrated with 36 plates after engravings by Arthur Hughes together with illustrations in the text; a near fine copy in unusually fresh and bright condition, both externally internally, with only small bruising to spine ends and tiny wear to forecorner tips; internally near fine, with an ownership inscription, dated 1894, to front free endpaper.

The first edition of this book was published in 1870. In 1886 a New Edition included the text illustrations together with the glorious full-page plates by Arthur Hughes. A non-fantasy story for older children tells of a boy whose mother has died and who is then brought up on a farm in the north of Scotland, an experience which closely mirrors Macdonald’s own childhood, and which is generally considered as loosely autobiographical.