[SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM]. The Tempest. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1926.
First trade edition, first impression. Cloth-bound; hardcover; quarto (25.5cm x 18.5cm x 2.5cm); pp. ix, [1], 185. English text. Original black cloth, lettering and decorations to spine and front cover in gilt. Initial and terminal blanks plus half-title present. Colour frontispiece and 19 colour plates mounted on white paper, black and white illustrations in the text, all by Arthur Rackham. Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Ltd., Bungay, Suffolk. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure. Covers clean. Slight rubbing to spine ends. Interior very well-preserved with just a few light fox spots to endpapers. without previous ownership markings.
Notes: First edition of a particularly fine publication. When asked to name five plays by Shakespeare he would like to illustrate, Rackham placed The Tempest at the top, second only to A Midsummer Night's Dream, and is evident in the ethereal and subdued colour plates. The Tempest is among Gettings' survey of Rackham's Best Book Illustrations. A review, published in The Bystander in December 1926, stated that it was "most exquisitely illustrated by Arthur Rackham, and some of the colour plates were the loveliest things of their kind that I have seen". Fred Gettings in his study of Rackham stated that "three plates, 'Come unto these yellow sands'; 'The isle is full of noises', and the fine 'Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears', reach near perfection, and in so doing point a new quality in Rackham's work" (Gettings, p. 150). Fred Gettings, Arthur Rackham, London, Studio Vista, 1975; Latimore & Haskell, p. 61; Riall, p. 161.
