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Author: KIRK, Robert. (Introduction - LANG, Andrew)
Title: The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies; A Study in Folk-Lore & Psychical Research.
Publisher : London: David Nutt, 1893. First thus, limited to 550 copies. Bibliotheque de Carabas Vol. XII.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8 " X 5 ".
Pages : lxv-92-(2 catalogue) pages.
Binding: Very good original printed wraps (slightly worn and scuffed - as shown, spine slightly darkened - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean). 
Illustrations: Complete with the nice frontispiece illustration by William Lockhart Bogle.

Estimate: (USD 600 - USD 800)

The book: Scarce limited edition of this book - Folklorist Stewart Sanderson and mythologist Marina Warner call Kirk's collection of supernatural tales one of the most important and significant works on the subject of fairies and second sight. In the late 1680s, Kirk traveled to London to help publish one of the first translations of the Bible into Scottish Gaelic. Gentleman scientist Robert Boyle financed the publication of the Gaelic Bible and pursued inquiries into Kirk's reports of second sight. Kirk died before he was able to publish The Secret Commonwealth. Legends arose after Kirk's death saying he had been taken away to fairyland for revealing the secrets of the Good People. Scottish author Walter Scott first published Kirk's work on fairies more than a century later in 1815. Andrew Lang later gave it the popular title, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies (1893). Famous author Philip Pullman gave to the second book of his trilogy The Book of Dust the same title "The Secret Commonwealth" because he said that Kirk's book is one of his favorite books. This copy is from the estate of Harold Hartley with his “The Pursuing Conscience” bookplate.

The author: Robert Kirk (9 December 1644 – 14 May 1692) was a minister, Gaelic scholar, and folklorist, best known for The Secret Commonwealth, a treatise on fairy folklore, witchcraft, ghosts, and second sight, a type of extrasensory perception described as a phenomenon by the people of the Scottish Highlands.