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When I first explored this 1906 edition of Peter Pan Kensington Gardens, I was awed by her nearly pristine condition. Despite being 117 years old, she has no wormholes, no dog-eared folds, only one annotated page, and only one rip (at an inner-margin) in over 120 pages. Her pages aren’t brittle, and yellowing is sparse … Read more

Rackham’s illustrations in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens embrace a spectrum of what otherworldliness can be – breathtakingly beautiful, ghostly, and goofy. For example, the frontispiece takes ‘high-brow’ and ‘low-brow’ literally. At the top, elegant line drawings of cherub-like Peter Pan, flanked on either side by a sober-faced entourage that includes renaissance-inspired ladies. At the … Read more

At a glance, PPKG gives off ‘big head, tiny face’ meme vibes. Each page is grandiose – 28.25 x 22.25 cm – but the space isn’t maximized by the text. The text-block is one column about a third of that height and length. It’s left-aligned and justified, without line breaks, giving the impression that the … Read more

She’s a whimsical thing dressed in buckram-book-cloth boards, a green color somewhere between chlorophyll and parakeet. Small white pores between the subtle cross-hatching lines brightens her texture. She’s adorned with stamped engravings in gold leaf, spelling out the title/author/illustrator and depicting playful illustrations. The book is about 11 by 8 inches. She is a great … Read more