Pied Piper of Hamelin, The

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. , 1934. First American Trade Edition
of Arthur Rackham's "Pied Piper of Hamelin"

[RACKHAM, Arthur, illustrator]. BROWNING, Robert. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. ,[n.d., 1934].

First American trade edition. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 5/8 inches; 219 x 142 mm.). 44, [1], [3, blank] pp. Four color plates and fourteen drawings in black and white (including one double-page).

Original red sand-grain cloth. Front cover with white pictorial label printed in black, red, and olive green. A near fine copy. In the original color pictorial dust jacket (jacket very slightly chipped at head of spine).

The Pied Piper of Hamelin was a magician in German folklore. According to legend, the town of Hamelin was plagued by rats. A mysterious stranger in varicolored clothes appeared and offered to rid the town of the destructive vermin for a specified sum of money. The leaders of the town agreed to the contract, and the stranger began to play his pipe. The rats came swarming from the buildings and followed him to the River Weser, where they drowned. But when the town leaders refused to make the agreed payment the Pied Piper returned once more to play his pipe. This time, however, it was all the children of the town whom he enchanted and lured away to vanish behind a door in the Koppenberg hill. Robert Browning told the story in his poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin in 1842.

Latimore and Haskell, p. 71. Riall, p. 186.