"Under the Tree", by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, illustrated by Francis Donkin Bedford, published by Viking, New York, stated 8th printing of the first illustrated edition, October 1963.

Hard boards, original cloth [a little wear and soiling, white # on spine], 6. 1/2" x 9. 1/2"; 85 pages, fully illustrated; discarded library book with library stamps and labels, title and two other pages have stamps/number at blank bottom, a little paper residue from removed bag inside back cover, otherwise clean pages, very good condition.

CONTENTS:

The Sky; The Cornfield; Milking Time; In My Pillow; Miss Kate-Marie; The Twins; The Woodpecker; The Star; The Butterbean Tent; Big Brother; Mr. Wells; Dick and Will; Firefly; Little Rain; The Pulpit; On the Hill; Autumn; The Pilaster; The Rabbit; Crescent Moon; The Richest Women in the World; Father's Story; Christmas Morning; Strange Tree; People Going By; Babes in the Woods; The Picnic; The Circus; Mumps; The Worm; A Child Asleep; Little Bush; Uncle Mells and the Witches' Tree; At the Water; Water Noises; Among the Rushes; Numbers; The Dark; Number Song; The Sun and The Birch Tree; In the Night; The Grandmother; In Maryland; The Sunday Bonnet; The People; Autumn Fields; Cold fear; A Little Wind; Mrs Pennybaker at Church; The Wolves; A Beautiful Lady; Shells in Rock; Horse; Firefly Song; August Night; Three Dominican Nuns; My Heart; The Hens.

"This well-received 1922 collection of poems launched Roberts's literary career. Many of the poems charmingly recreate the world of childhood in much the manner of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses."
Rural poems of the American South, written with such childishly simple perceptions, meters and rhythms that it is impossible to believe that they were written by an adult, though the author was forty years of age when they were published.
Don't mistake the simplicity for a lack of quality though. The collection is actually something of a small delight, even if each of the poems could have been written on the back of a postage stamp after no more than a few minute's thought. Their guileless lack of sophistication is actually their strength.

The poems are either about the rustic charms of the farmstead ('The Cornfield', 'The Strange tree', 'Water Noises'), its animals ('Milking Time', 'Horse', 'The Hens'), the family ('Dick and Will', 'Father's Story', 'The Grandmother'), or about churchgoing and other simple bucolic pursuits ('The Pulpit', 'Mr. Bennybaker at Church', 'The Circus'). All are quite delightful. The poems are all short and sweet, many having as little as eight syllables in the meter or verses of a single couplet." [a review]

Francis Donkin Bedford (1864-1954), also known as F.D. Bedford, was a British artist and illustrator. Works include illustrations for A Book of Nursery Rhymes (1897), The Books of Shops (1899), Four and Twenty Toilers (1900), The Visit to London (1902), Peter and Wendy (1911), The Magic Fishbone (1921), A Christmas Carol (1923), and The Cricket on the Hearth (1927).

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) ------------- $12.50
Canada: 1st Class (c.2-6 weeks) ------- $27.50
World: 1st Class (c.2-8 weeks) -------- $35.50