The Gypsies by Charles G. Leland

Leland’s poetical writings on his experiences with gypsy communities. He details many aspects of gypsy culture from around the world, Russian, Austrian, English, Welsh, American, Eastern and Romany.
An American folklorist, Charles Godfrey Leland was the founding president of the Gypsy Lore Society. One of the most influential figures of the 20th century witchcraft revival, his book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches was published in 1899.

‘As I went forth by the river into the night, and the stars looked down like loving eyes, there shot a meteor across the sky, one long trail of light, out of darkness into darkness, one instant bright, then dead forever. And I remembered how I once was told that stars, like mortals, often fall in love…For love and light in heaven, as on earth, were ever one, and planets speak with light.’

Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company; Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1898. Seventh edition. Hardcover. 372pp. Publishers brown cloth with gilt tiles, several dents to boards, corners rubbed, shelf-wear to edges, text clean, small clipping to rear end-paper and annotation by a previous owner, an excellent copy.