Description
Leonowens, Anna Harriette. The English Governess at the Siamese Court Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok. (Fields, Osgood, & Co.: Boston, 1870)
Octavo. xiv, 321 pages. Bound in brick-colored beveled boards decorated in black and gilt. Edges neatly trimmed. Label from the George May Elwood collection showing the number 3018. First Edition.
Condition: The book is in very good condition, with some wear to corners and top of spine. A gift inscription from Christmas 1870 is on the blank page preceding the frontispiece. Light foxing to frontispiece and title page as well as tissue separating the two, otherwise clean.
This book is the inspiration for “Anna and the King of Siam” and “The King and I”.
Includes the bookplate of George May Elwood done by Harvey Ellis. Ellis was an architect and designer and, for a period of time, worked for Gustav Stickley designing furniture. This bookplate is in several museum collections.
“Anna Harriette Leonowens (born Anna Harriet Emma Edwards;[1] 5 November 1831 – 19 January 1915) was an Anglo-Indian or Indian-born British[2] travel writer, educator and social activist.
“She became well-known with the publication of her memoirs, beginning with The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870), which chronicled her experiences in Siam (modern Thailand), as teacher to the children of the Siamese King Mongkut. Leonowens’ own account has been fictionalised in Margaret Landon‘s 1944 best-selling novel Anna and the King of Siam, as well as films and television series based on the book, most notably Rodgers and Hammerstein‘s 1951 hit musical The King and I.” – Wikipedia
