Watership Down

London: Rex Collings, 1972. First edition. Folding map. 1 vols. 8vo. Original brown cloth, stamped in gilt on cover and spine; illustrated dust jacket; minor bumps to bottom corners, with small repair, else a fine copy. Grey half morocco folding case with marbled paper sides, raised bands, and extra-gilt spine. First edition. Folding map. 1 vols. 8vo. A fine copy of this beloved modern classic, inscribed on the title-page: “To Alan Aldridge / with sincere good wishes / Richard Adams / 1st Jan 1975.” Aldridge was an artist who, while best known for his psychedelic album covers for The Beatles, The Who, Elton John, and the Rolling Stones, also illustrated children's books. His 1973 work, The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast, won that year's Whitbread Children's Book Award, an honor which likely brought him to Adams' attention, who then enlisted him as the illustrator for his 1977 book, The Ship’s Cat — quite possibly at the time of this inscription.