The Orange Fairy Book was published by Longmans, Green in 1906. By the tenth volume, the series had established a genuinely global scope: this installment mixed Rhodesian, Ugandan, Danish, and Punjabi tales with European material, drawing from five continents with practiced ease.
The East African stories reflected the growing body of ethnographic collection in British-administered territories, where missionaries and colonial administrators were recording oral traditions — sometimes sympathetically, sometimes exploitatively. Lang’s editorial practice was to select stories that worked as narrative entertainment, regardless of their ethnographic context.
Collecting The Orange Fairy Book
First edition (Longmans, Green, London, 1906): Orange cloth with gilt decorations.
Market values:
- Fine condition: $400–$900
- Very good: $150–$400
- Good: $50–$150
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
African and Asian
The Orange volume (1906) mixes Rhodesian, Ugandan, Danish, and Punjabi tales with European material, continuing the series’ commitment to global scope. By the tenth volume, Lang had largely exhausted the major European collections and was drawing increasingly from African, Central Asian, and Southeast Asian traditions — stories that were unfamiliar to his English-speaking audience and that gave the later volumes a different character from the early Grimm-heavy books.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to the Fairy Books after Lang died? Lang died in 1912, two years after the final volume (The Lilac Fairy Book, 1910). The series was never continued, though many editors have produced anthologies inspired by Lang’s model. The twelve original volumes remain in print and continue to be the standard popular anthology of world fairy tales in English.