A rare whisper from the threshold of the 20th century, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts (1901) unfurls as an elegant tapestry of hagiographic tales interwoven with charming bestiary lore. Authored by Abbie Farwell Brown—an American poet, folklorist, and children’s writer whose works reveal a deft sensitivity to both moral gravity and mythopoetic whimsy—this volume revives early Christian legends through the animated lens of animal companions and sacred wonder.

Alternately solemn and joyously eccentric, Brown's narratives evoke the meditative cadence of devotional literature while infusing it with the innocence and wild empathy of nature. Her storytelling occupies a liminal space: not mere children’s literature, but a quiet theological theater where lions, lambs, birds, and wolves serve as emissaries of divine mystery and gentle salvation.

Published at the dawn of a century by Houghton, Mifflin and Company and bound in a restrained yet gracefully embossed cloth cover, this edition bears the hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts era—reflecting a time when bookmaking was still a dialogue between function and artistry. The typography, subdued and elegant, offers a visual rhythm that mirrors the soft moral cadence of the text.

Brown’s work resonates as both a literary curio and a theological artifact: at once an ode to the sacred ecology of medieval Christian legend and a subtle critique of anthropocentrism, cast in the lyrical prose of a forgotten moral imagination.

-Good - Book is well kept but may have noticeable signs of age or wear.

-All conditions are subjectively evaluated based upon age.