Green Mansions — Hudson/Covarrubias, Heritage Press
$36.00
📖 Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson (1936/1944, The Heritage Press) — Hudson’s classic 1904 exotic romance set in the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela, in a Heritage Press edition illustrated by Miguel Covarrubias with eight full-color plates and dozens of line drawings. This copy is Near Fine in its original slipcase, accompanied by the original Sandglass bulletin.
QUICK FACTS
- Author: William Henry Hudson (1841–1922), Anglo-Argentine naturalist and author
- Illustrator: Miguel Covarrubias (1904–1957), Mexican painter, caricaturist, and ethnologist
- Publisher: The Heritage Press, New York (for The George Macy Companies, Inc.)
- Year: Copyright 1936 and 1944 (Heritage Press edition, plates based on the Limited Editions Club original)
- Format: Hardcover with pictorial cloth boards in original publisher slipcase
- Pages: Not numbered in text | ISBN: None (pre-ISBN era)
- Condition: Book: Near Fine / Slipcase: Very Good- — full report below
THE STORY
First published in 1904, Green Mansions tells the story of Abel, a young Venezuelan revolutionary who flees Caracas into the uncharted forests of Guayana. There he encounters Rima, a mysterious forest-dwelling girl who communicates with birds in an unknown language and is worshipped as a spirit by the local indigenous people. As Abel falls in love with Rima, he discovers she is the last survivor of a lost tribe. The novel’s lyrical, naturalist prose and its themes of nature, isolation, and the “natural man” influenced the early ecological movement. It was one of the first books published by Alfred A. Knopf and their first bestseller, going through nine printings by 1919. The 1959 film adaptation starred Audrey Hepburn as Rima and Anthony Perkins as Abel.
THIS EDITION
The Heritage Press was the trade companion to George Macy’s Limited Editions Club, using the same plates and design to make fine press books affordable. This edition features Covarrubias’s illustrations originally created for the LEC, here reprinted unsigned. The copyright page reads “The special contents of this edition are copyright 1936, 1944, by The Heritage Press for The George Macy Companies, Inc.” The book was part of Heritage Press’s Series A, released in the 1937–1938 season. This copy includes the original Sandglass bulletin (Number XVII), a monthly newsletter published by The Heritage Club for its members, which contains an essay titled “Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On” discussing Hudson’s motivations for writing.
COVER ART & ILLUSTRATIONS
The full-color pictorial cloth boards feature a dense, vibrant jungle scene with tropical foliage, butterflies, and a fairy-like figure — Rima — amid the canopy, rendered in Covarrubias’s distinctive style. The interior includes eight full-color plates: Forest Toucans, The Howling Monkeys, Indian Hunters, The Coral Snake, The Green Mansions, An Indian Family, The Burning of the Tree, and The Head of the Monster. Covarrubias also contributed dozens of black-and-white line drawings throughout the text, including stylized figures, butterflies, and chapter headpieces. The illustrations range from lush, Rousseau-esque jungle panoramas to intimate character scenes, capturing the novel’s sense of natural wonder.
WHY IT MATTERS
- Miguel Covarrubias was a towering figure in 20th-century Mexican art — a Vanity Fair and New Yorker caricaturist, co-discoverer of the Olmec civilization, and author of Island of Bali. His book illustrations for the Heritage Press and LEC are highly sought after by collectors.
- Green Mansions is considered Hudson’s masterpiece and one of the landmark “lost world” novels, alongside H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.
- The book influenced the nature conservation movement and inspired multiple adaptations, including the 1959 Audrey Hepburn film, DC Comics’ Rima the Jungle Girl (1970s), and James Tiptree Jr.’s science fiction.
- Heritage Press editions with original Sandglass inserts and slipcases in good condition are increasingly collectible, as Sandglass bulletins are often missing from surviving copies.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What edition is this? Heritage Press edition, copyright 1936/1944, with illustrations by Miguel Covarrubias. Not a first edition — it is a trade reprint of the Limited Editions Club design using the same plates.
What condition is it in? Book is Near Fine; slipcase is Very Good- — full condition report below.
Is this the same as the Limited Editions Club edition? No. The LEC edition (1936) was limited to 1,500 numbered copies signed by Covarrubias. This Heritage Press edition uses the same illustrations and plates but is unsigned and unlimited. The Heritage Press was founded in 1935 specifically to make LEC designs accessible to a broader readership.
FOR COLLECTORS
This copy is particularly desirable because it includes both the original slipcase and the Sandglass bulletin — elements frequently separated from the book over the decades. Covarrubias’s illustrations for Green Mansions represent some of his finest book work, and his Heritage Press editions are collected alongside his LEC productions. The pictorial cloth boards remain bright and vivid, with sharp corners and a tight, square binding.
Book Details
Author: W. H. Hudson
Illustrator: Miguel Covarrubias
Publisher: The Heritage Press
Binding: Hardcover
Edition Points: Heritage Press edition with copyright dates of 1936 and 1944. Issued with publisher slipcase and Sandglass bulletin Number XVI: 20.
Condition Report
Overall Grade: Book: Near Fine (NF) / Slipcase: Very Good- (VG-)
Cover & Spine: Full-color pictorial cloth boards are bright and clean, sharp board corners. Spine tail shows a bump on one side some rubbing. Slipcase shows discoloration from either sunning or foxing, or both? One corner at the mouth has a small split and shows underlying board. Aside from that, the case is solid with no other splits.
Text Block & Pages: Pages are clean and off-white/cream. Top edge stained green as issued, lightly sunned near spine edge. Full-color plates and interior line illustrations remain crisp.
Binding: Tight, solid, and square binding. Hinges are firm.
See accompanying images for full condition details. Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.
HFB-SEO-v1: 2026-08-05
1 in stock
Additional information
| Weight | 32 oz |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 11 × 9 × 3 in |
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