The Box of Delights

John Masefield, poet laureate of the U.K. from 1930 till his death in 1967, is perhaps best known for his poem "Sea Fever" ("I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky"). He was also, however, one of the finest and most influential writers of children's books. I first read The Box of Delights in Kenya, when I was about ten. When I went to the States for college, I was horrified to find that no one had heard of it, and that the only available edition had been butchered by ...