MORRIS, William (1834-1896). The Wood Beyond the World. Boston: Roberts House, 1895. 8vo. [vii], 1-273, [2, blank] pp. Frontispiece woodblock by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. Publisher's decorative green cloth stamped black and gold with top edge gilt. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, LIMITED TO 500. 

Morris, in his time a poet, activist, and textile designer, is now best-remembered as the progenitor of modern fantasy literature, having written a series of "prose romances" in the last decade of his life that inspired the masters of genre, including Dunsany, Lewis, and Tolkien, who adapted the names of "Gandolf" and "Silverfax" from Morris' The Well at the World's End. The Wood Beyond the World, first published through Morris' own Kelmscott Press in 1894, is often considered the earliest novelistic depiction of a wholly imaginary world, predating Dunsany's Pegana. In 1969 the novel was republished as the third issue in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series.

Boards rubbed and toned throughout, corners bumped and rubbed, spine darkened, spine block stained and discolored, minor fraying at margins, lightly soiled with several spots to rear. Ownership inscription to front flyleaf, front hinge starting, light spotting and toning, light water damage to margins, tissue guard separating, sporadic foxing. Very good.