The unknown quantity : a book of romance and some half-told tales [The wedding-ring -- Messengers at the window -- The countersign of the cradle -- The key of the tower -- The ripening of the fruit -- The king's jewel -- The music-lover -- Humoreske -- An old game -- The unruly sprite -- A change of air -- The night call -- The effectual fervent prayer -- The return of the charm -- Beggars under the bush -- Stronghold -- In the odour of sanctity -- The sad shepherd -- The mansion.

New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924, ©1912, 1924. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. April 1921 printing ; viii, 306 pg. [8] leaves of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 20 cm ; LCCN: 12-23517 ; LC: PZ3.V288; Dewey: 813.52 ; OCLC: 798767 ; decorated blue cloth ; no dustjacket ; "This volume contains nineteen very pleasant short stories, all of which have some mystical touch in them."--The Spectator. ; Contents : The wedding-ring -- Messengers at the window -- The countersign of the cradle -- The key of the tower -- The ripening of the fruit -- The king's jewel -- The music-lover -- Humoreske -- An old game -- The unruly sprite -- A change of air -- The night call -- The effectual fervent prayer -- The return of the charm -- Beggars under the bush -- Stronghold -- In the odour of sanctity -- The sad shepherd -- The mansion. ; Van Dyke was a professor of English literature at Princeton between 1899 and 1923. In 1908-09 he was an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President Wilson, a friend and former classmate of van Dyke, he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. ; Decorated cloth binding by Margaret Armstrong, bound in Illustrations by Charles Shepard Chapman and Garth Jones.; "Born in Morristown, New York, Charles Chapman was a noted teacher, painter, and illustrator who, although he often claimed he was self-taught, was educated at Pratt Institute*, and in 1899 at William Merritt Chase's New York School of Art* in New York City. He was highly influenced by the famed western artist Frederic Remington. One of his techniques he described was painting with "Water-Oils", where he floated oil paint on water on paper, and then laid paper over the floating design, which left an abstract affect. Chapman specialized in landscapes, and although he spent most of his life in the East, he traveled extensively in the West, especially Wyoming and Arizona where a frequent subject was the Grand Canyon. In 1938, he spent a month at the Canyon and also painted ranch landscapes and in the Snowy Range of Wyoming. n the 1930s, he was commissioned by the Museum of Natural History in New York to paint a thirty-by-thirty-foot mural of the Grand Canyon as a background for the Puma group exhibit. He camped for several weeks at the rim of the Canyon while he worked on this project."--AskART ; "Alfred Garth Jones (1872-1955) was an English artist and illustrator who worked mainly in woodcut, pen and ink line art drawing and watercolour. In America, his illustrations for Henry van Dyke's short stories the Half-Told Tales appeared in the January to June, 1912 issue of Scribner's Magazine.[13] In October 1912, Charles Scribner's Sons published the first edition of Van Dyke's The Unknown Quantity, with artwork by various illustrators, of which Garth Jones was one ; Dark blue (C183)--calico grain cloth; gilt lettering framed by gold, pale orange design; flower motif repeated on spine in gilt; partially untrimmed ; Trade edition issued in dark blue cloth ; foxing ; name on front endpaper ; VG.