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(Description)

Author: George MacDonald. Arthur Hughes, illustrator.
Title: At the Back of the North Wind. "New Edition" with Seventy-Five illustrations by Arthur Hughes.
Publisher: London, Blackie and Son Limited, no date (circa 1890).
Language: Text in English.  
Size: 7.5 " X 5.5 ". 
Pages: vi-378 pages + (32) publisher's catalog.
Binding: Attractive and good original decorated full-cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn, soiled and scuffed -  as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges gilt. Scarce in this binding blue variant.
Content: Good to very good content (bright, tight, and clean, some light foxing or staining - as shown, ex-libris of a previous owner on the first endpaper - as shown, inner hinge of the last endpaper worn but still tight - as shown).
Illustrations: Beautifully illustrated with 75 illustrations by Arthur Hughes.

The book: Attractive and scarce early edition of At the Back of the North Wind -- a children's book written by Scottish author George MacDonald. It was serialized in the children's magazine Good Words for the Young beginning in 1868 and was published in book form in 1871. It is a fantasy centered on a boy named Diamond and his adventures with the North Wind. Diamond travels together with the mysterious Lady North Wind through the nights. The book includes the fairy tale Little Daylight, which has been pulled out as an independent work, or separately, added to other collections of his fairy tales.

The author: George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors, including W. H. Auden, J. M. Barrie, Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees, Robert E. Howard, L. Frank Baum, T.H. White, Lloyd Alexander, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit, Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Madeleine L'Engle. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later", said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".