Johnson, Margaret, ill. McDermott, Jessie and Hayden, E. P. ‘The Procession of the Zodiac: Twelve Month-Poems by Margaret Johnson; Twelve Month-Drawings by Jessie McDermott’ D. Lothrop and Company, Franklin and Hawley Streets, Boston, USA, 1886.

Original cloth (wear to extremities of spine; moderate wear to outer corners of boards; light wear to rear spine hinge; minor cracking to upper part of front inner paper hinge). Contents printed in sepia ink throughout. (Separation after second ffep; after p. 24; after p. 32; after p. 48, but cords strong beneath). [Frontis.] + [2] + [plate] + [pp. 7-8] + [plate] + [pp. 11-12] + [plate] + [pp. 15-16] + [plate] + [pp. 19-20] + [plate] + [pp. 23-4] + [plate] + [pp. 27-8] + [plate] + [pp. 31-2] + [plate] + [pp. 35-6] + [plate] + [pp. 39-40] + [plate] + [pp. 43-4] + [plate] + [pp. 47-8] + [plate] + [pp. 51-2] + [2 leaves of plates]

About this Book Scan

Carefully scanned in full colour from our original printing of the illustrated first edition of 1886

Margaret Johnson’s The Procession of the Zodiac is a curious early illustrated portrait of the Sun signs. It is not an interpretative text so much as a charming picture-book, but exemplifies the interest in the Sun signs in popular culture even before they took on a central role in modern astrology.