ADAMS, Richard (1920–2016). Watership Down. London: Rex Collings, 1972. 8vo. With folding map. Original brown cloth gilt (spine gently cocked, else fine); original unclipped dust jacket (few tiny spots of wear near head, some light sunning to spine panel with few tiny spots of rubbing). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY ADAMS TO BRITISH CHILDREN’S WRITER, JOHN ROWE TOWNSEND. Townsend (1922–2014) was best known for his children’s novel The Intruder, which won a 1971 Edgar Award for best in the entire mystery genre. Townsend was also a children’s literature scholar, best known in this field for his reference series Written for Children: An Outline of English Children’s Literature (1965), the definitive work of its time on the subject. In it, Townsend notes that Adams’ Watership Down achieved such a high popularity despite the fact that it “came out at a high price and in an unattractive jacket from a publisher who had hardly been heard of”. Adams’s first novel Watership Down was initially turned down by the major publishing houses, before publication by Rex Collings in 1972, and it was quickly established as a major work of British post–war literature. Sales exceeded 100,000 copies in the first year, and Adams was awarded both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Award for children’s fiction. It was also the source of numerous adaptations for film and television including the 1978 British animated adventure–drama that was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. A WONDERFUL ASSOCIATION COPY.