Robin Hood — Gilbert/Godwin, Garden City 1932

📖 Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert (1932, Garden City Publishing Co.) — A complete retelling of the Robin Hood legends in prose narrative, illustrated in color by Frank Godwin. This Garden City reprint preserves the Godwin illustrations first published by David McKay in the late 1920s.

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Henry Gilbert (British novelist and children’s author)
• Publisher: Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, NY
• Year: 1932 (copyright date on title page; original David McKay edition ca. 1920s)
• Format: Hardcover in green cloth boards with illustrated frontispiece and endpapers
• Pages: 331 | ISBN: None (pre-ISBN era)
• Condition: Very Good- — full report below

THE STORY

Henry Gilbert’s Robin Hood is one of the most widely read prose retellings of the medieval outlaw legends. Gilbert gathered the traditional ballads, chronicles, and folk tales about the yeoman archer of Sherwood Forest and wove them into a continuous narrative spanning Robin’s youth, his band of Merry Men, encounters with Marian and the Sheriff of Nottingham, and his eventual death at the hands of the treacherous prioress of Kirklees. First published in the early 1900s, Gilbert’s version remains a standard reference point for the Robin Hood tradition in English-language children’s literature.

THIS EDITION

The Garden City Publishing Co. reprint of 1932 reproduces the Frank Godwin–illustrated edition originally issued by David McKay of Philadelphia. Garden City was known for affordable reprints of popular titles, printed at their Country Life Press facility. This copy bears the copyright date of 1932 on the title page and retains the full Godwin illustration suite — a two-page glossy frontispiece, a color plate facing page 68, and illustrated endpapers. Two plates listed for pages 156 and 180 are not present in this copy, though the text is complete.

COVER ART & ILLUSTRATIONS

The front cover features a color paste-down illustration of Robin Hood in a green tunic and red cape, drawing his bow in a forest setting. The dark green cloth binding shows scattered surface scuffs and edge wear consistent with age. The spine is brown cloth with orange lettering — “ROBIN HOOD / HENRY GILBERT / Illustrated by FRANK GODWIN / GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO.” — with fraying at the head. Illustrated endpapers depict Robin Hood scenes in a sketch style. The interior color plates include a dramatic two-page frontispiece of Robin Hood and a full-page illustration of the bridge fight with the stranger (facing page 68), both rendered in Godwin’s characteristic painterly gouache style with rich greens, blues, and earth tones.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Frank Godwin (1889–1959) was a major American illustrator whose book work for David McKay in the 1920s — including Robin Hood, Treasure Island, and King Arthur — may have influenced Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant
• Godwin studied at the Art Students League in New York and worked in oils, gouache, and ink; his Robin Hood illustrations are considered among his finest color work
• Garden City reprints made Godwin’s illustrations accessible to a wider audience during the Depression era, when original McKay editions were harder to find

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What edition is this? This is the 1932 Garden City Publishing Co. reprint of the Frank Godwin–illustrated Robin Hood, originally published by David McKay of Philadelphia. Not a first edition — it is a later affordable reprint of the Godwin-illustrated version.

What condition is it in? Very Good- overall. Green cloth boards with surface scuffs and edge wear; spine tanned with fraying at head; text block clean and tight; two of four color plates present (frontispiece and facing p.68); illustrated endpapers intact. Full condition report below.

Are the illustrations complete? The two-page glossy frontispiece and the color plate facing page 68 are present. The plates listed for pages 156 and 180 are not present in this copy. The text is complete.

FOR COLLECTORS

This copy pairs Gilbert’s classic Robin Hood narrative with what many collectors consider Frank Godwin’s finest book illustration work. The Garden City reprint is the most commonly found edition of the Godwin-illustrated Robin Hood, making it an accessible entry point for collectors of Golden Age illustration art.

Condition Report

Overall Grade: Very Good- (VG-)

Cover & Spine: Green cloth-wrapped boards featuring a color paste-down illustration on the front cover. Spine is tanned, although the orange lettering is still bright, loss in cloth at the spine head into the “R” of Robin. Spine ends show fraying, as to board corners all around, corners bumped.

Dust Jacket: Not present.

Text Block & Pages: Text block lower and outer edge relatively uniform, showing some tanning, but free from spotting or soilage, upper edge is tinted orange, lightly dusted and tanned near spine, some minimal spotting. Pages are a uniform light wood-color and remain clean. Previous owner’s signature in ink on the front endpaper and blue stamp price marking on the rear endpaper.

Note: The 2-page glossy frontispiece and the full page illustration at page 68 are present and complete, but as per the list of illustrations, the ones for page 156 and 180 are not present. The text of the book is complete.

Binding: Square and tight, hinges are solid, not starting, no loose, torn or folded pages.

See accompanying images for full condition details.

Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

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