The Little Land Little Book

February 04, 2025

The sweetest of teeny tiny miniature books exists in Special Collections & Archives: The Little Land. The Little Land is a selection of four Robert Lewis Stevenson poems from A Child’s Garden of Verses. A Child’s Garden of Verses was first printed in 1885 and contains over 60 children’s poems. This miniature selection includes The Little Land, A Good Play, The Flowers, and Block City.

The publisher, Miriam D. Irwin, wrote a short introduction and signed this limited edition book. Irwin calls these four poems “Let’s Pretend” poems as they all capture the wonder of a child’s imagination. Each poem takes you to a place where children are able to create entire worlds using toys, household items, or just their creative imaginations. 

Notably, the book is also signed by the Illustrator, Romilda Dilley. Dilley was a successful painter and illustrator from Cincinnati, Ohio. Many of her detailed illustrations can be found in miniature books. Dilley was also the head artist and art director for the Jenny department store in downtown Cincinnati from 1948 to 1956. She created beautiful fashion illustrations for ads that were published in local Cincinnati newspapers.

Here in Special Collections we have a "small" sample of Dilley’s artwork. The Little Land contains six of Dilley’s illustrations. They are simple and clear enough to fit on a page that is only a half inch wide, yet still perfectly detailed and able to bring these whimsical poems to life. The print that Special Collections & Archives holds is number 332 of only 380 printed by Mosaic Press in Cincinnati, Ohio and is complete with gilded edges and marbled end sheets.

Romilda Dilley’s archive can be found at the Cincinnati Art Museum. For more miniatures, check out our collection of miniature books including additional signed editions from John Cheever, Charles Bukowski, and more!

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Post tagged as: special collections, rare books, international