8vo. 324 pages. Scarlet boards with color pictorial pastedown on front cover. Six fantastic color illustrations including frontispiece. No fading. Slightly faded gilt lettering on spine. Gift inscription in ink on ffep. Very light rubbing to pastedown on front board. "It would be pleasant indeed to gather the characters of this book together and listen to the conversation of wholly different but interested couples -- for this is a book of contrasts and has been written as such." Charming book containing short biographies of characters both historical and fictional. Subjects include Buddha, Julius Caesar, Saint Patrick, Dante, John Paul Jones, Florence Nightingale, Theodore Roosevelt, William Tell, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Rip Van Winkle, and many others.