Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome and Helene Carter, First Us Edition with Dust Jacket

Arthur [Mitchell] Ransome (1884 to 1967)—English author and journalist, born in Leeds and best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books (Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Peter Duck, Winter Holiday, Coot Club, Pigeon Post, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, Secret Water, The Big Six, Missee Lee, The Picts And The Martyrs: or Not Welcome At All and Great Northern?). He was also the author of forty or so other titles including other children's books, fishing books, sailing books and books on politics

Jonathan Cape Limited—(Founded in 1919) British publisher founded in 1919 by Herbert Jonathan Cape (1879-1960), the son of a builder who started as an apprentice in the book trade. The company was initially named Jonathan Page and Company (Page was his mother's maiden name) and this changed to Jonathan Cape in 1921. Its most books and authors are probably: T. E. Lawrence, Arthur Ransome, the later Roald Dahl books, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, Fitzroy Maclean's Eastern Approaches, the James Bond series by Ian Fleming and more recently Anita Brookner, Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Salman Rushdie. It is currently an imprint of Random House.

Swallows and Amazons—A series of 12 (Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Peter Duck, Winter Holiday, Coot Club, Pigeon Post, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, Secret Water, The Big Six, Missee Lee, The Picts And The Martyrs: or Not Welcome At All and Great Northern?) children's books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series. They involve the outdoor adventures of children, most notably John, Susan, Titty, and Roger Walker, Nancy and Peggy Blackett and Dick and Dorothea Callum. They portray an idyllic, yet also realistic, depiction of childhood adventure set in the 1930s. The series contains 12 books. The first book was originally published in 1930 and the last book was originally published in 1947. Titles in the series are: 1—'Swallows and Amazons', 2—'Swallowdale', 3—'Peter Duck', 4—'Winter Holiday', 5—'Coot Club', 6—'Pigeon Post', 7—'We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea', 8—'Secret Water', 9—'The Big Six', 10—'Missee Lee', 11—'The Picts and the Martyrs: Or Not Welcome at All', 12—'Great Northern?' and 13—'Coots in the North (Unfinished)'

The Swallows and Amazons are joined by Dick and Dorothea (the D.s), newcomers to the Lakes, for a polar expedition, full of mountain rescues, blizzards, igloos, ice sailing and heroic work amidst the frozen wastes.

There are twenty seven chapters: 1—'Strangers', 2—'Signalling to Mars', 3—'Strangers No More', 4—'The Igloo', 5—'Skating and the Alphabet', 6—'Snow', 7—'Arctic Voyage', 8—'Lost Leader', 9—'Quarantine', 10—'Doing Without Nancy', 11—'Cragfast Sheep', 12—'Ambulance Work', 13—'To Spitzbergen by Ice', 14—'Nancy Takes a Hand', 15—'Days in the Fram', 16—'Sailing Sledge', 17—'Nancy Sends a Picture', 18—'The Fram at Night', 19—'The D.'S Take Charge', 20—'Captain Nancy Gets Two Bits of News', 21—'Captain Flint Comes Home', 22—'Next Morning', 23—'The Uses of an Uncle', 24—'Flag at Beckfoot', 25—'Council in the Fram', 26—'The North Pole' and 27—'To the Rescue'.

Full page illustrations include : 'Signal Station and Observatory', ''is it for Us?'', 'The Martians in Sight', 'The Igloo', 'Signals', 'Pages From Dick's Book', 'Private Code', 'Semaphore Code', 'Scientific Notes', 'The Igloo in the Snow', 'Peggy in the Cat Ice', 'Captain Nancy Gives Instructions', 'Dog Team in High Greenland', ''Lower Away'', 'A Noise of Sawing and Hammering', ''the Houseboat's is Frozen In'', 'Airing the Fram', ''Shove Your Port Legs Down Hard'', 'Nancy's Question', 'The Fram in the Moonlight', 'Peggy's Answer', ''Tall Dutchman'', 'Eeking Settlements in the Sub Arctic (Map)', ''Its Moving!'', 'Capsized and Dismasted', 'Through the Snow', 'At the Pole', 'Message at Cache Island' and 'Nancy Reaching the Pole'.