The Olive Fairy Book was published by Longmans, Green in 1907. The penultimate volume featured a strong concentration of Indian tales — drawn from the vast reservoir of South Asian narrative tradition that included the Panchatantra, the Jataka tales, and regional folklore collections compiled by British and Indian scholars. Turkish and Armenian tales provided additional non-European material.
The Indian stories were particularly well-suited to the fairy-book format: Indian oral tradition is rich in the magical transformations, animal fables, and quest structures that Lang had been collecting across cultures for nearly two decades.
Collecting The Olive Fairy Book
First edition (Longmans, Green, London, 1907): Olive cloth with gilt decorations.
Market values:
- Fine condition: $400–$900
- Very good: $150–$400
- Good: $50–$150
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Indian and Turkish
The Olive volume (1907) features Indian, Turkish, and Armenian tales alongside Scandinavian material. The Indian stories — drawn from the vast subcontinent’s oral and literary traditions — are among the series’ richest, featuring complex magical systems, elaborate courtly settings, and moral ambiguities that contrast with the simpler European fairy-tale pattern. The Olive book rewards adult readers as much as children.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between collecting individual Fairy Books and the complete set? Individual volumes are readily available, particularly in Dover paperback. Complete first-edition sets of all twelve volumes in original Longmans cloth are extremely rare and command premium prices. Most collectors focus on the first four or five volumes (Blue through Pink), which are the most sought-after and the most difficult to find in fine condition.