Most people, when asked about their favorite book, will invariably include a book they read as a child. Hemingway famously proclaimed that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn". Twain's book, like its predecessor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, were books whose intended audience was young readers. Such books speak to us on multiple levels. As literature, they are well-crafted and clever with memorable characters and conflicts, but they matter to us for more than these reasons because we discovered them at a formative period of our lives. Their ideas helped to form our own, and so they are more personal ...
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Rochester, NY: Stecher Lith. Co., 1916. Folio. (12)pp. This vibrant children's book, illustrated with twelve full-color, full-page plates, narrates the early years of George Washington's life in verse. His childhood deeds, including learning to ride a horse at age ten, chopping down his father's cherry tree, and setting out as..... More
NY: E. M. Leavens Co., 1918. Quarto. (12)pp. Bold, colorful illustrations of the American West, including American Indians, cowboys, stage coaches, and frontier cabins, accompany explanatory text, printed in blue, red, and brown. Bound in color printed wrappers. Some bumping to corners, tiny tear at bottom of rear cover, else..... More
London: Griffith & Farran, 1876. Quarto. 21pp. Illustrations and text printed together anastatically. Kemp's elaborate calligraphy and illustrations imbue her rhymes with whimsy, making them more worthy of the category of fairy tale rather than nursery rhyme. Exceedingly rare. Bound in red cloth stamped in black and gold. Light soiling..... More
Cincinnati: U. P. James, (c. 1860). 24mo. 31pp. Illustrated throughout with stock wood engravings to accompany alphabets, vocabulary lists, grammar lessons, and short poems and moral stories. Crisply printed and, save expected minor soiling to exterior, remarkably clean in blue wrappers. Fine. More
London (but Hertfordshire): John Marshall (but Anne and Peter Stockham), 1801 (but 1976). One of forty-eight copies. In this "cabinet," there are two miniature books and a collection of twenty-eight hand-colored engravings of the objects listed in the books. The books are bound in full leather, one maroon and one..... More
Reading: Smart and Cowslade, 1792. First edition. The Preface notes that this series of versified history lessons is adapted from the Chronological and Historical Game of England, published by Dudley Adams. Once a young scholar has absorbed the mnemonic verse describing the monarch and his rule, they must then perform..... More
NY: Oxford University Press, 1947. Octavo. 118pp. Inscribed by Tudor on the second free flyleaf. Illustrated throughout in color and black-and-white by Tudor, with her signature floral wreaths, dreamy landscapes, and playful children. Bound in green cloth over boards with paper label to upper cover. Freckles of foxing throughout, though..... More
Mainz: Jos. Scholz, (c. 1890). Four stand-up scenes with forty-five die-cut paper figures, which can be used to stage the fairy tale of Snow White. The pieces include thirteen two-sided figures for our major players, including Snow White, the Seven Dwarves, Prince Charming, and the Evil Queen; six additional one-sided..... More
Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber, 1920. An unusual unused booklet with "magic leaves," which reveal a picture when lightly passed over with a pencil. For obvious reasons, it is especially rare to find such as this with a clean interior. Oblong 32mo. (8)ff. Bound in pictorial wrappers featuring an old-fashioned horse..... More
NY: Century Co., (c. 1933). Octavo. (x), 246pp. Copiously illustrated by Palmer Cox. This was the first adventure of the Brownies written in prose, and it is advertised as having "a detailed, connected story, with a beginning, a middle and an end." A later issue, with the text, binding, and..... More
NY: Lindner, Eddy & Clauss, (n.d.). 32mo. (12)pp. Full-page engravings throughout. Each illustrates a different customer of Clark's O.N.T. spool cotton, including the royal family, Native Americans, witches, and sailors. These are expounded upon by a four-line rhyming poem advertising the use of O.N.T. In pictorial paper wrappers. Fine. More
Chelsea: (Southernwood Press, c. 1915). Small quarto. (23)ff. One of thirty copies printed on handmade paper. Illustrated throughout by Josephine Winser. The drawings illustrate popular nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Jack & Jill, and Sing a Song of Sixpence. Children take center stage in these depictions..... More
London: Darton, 1811. 32mo. 16pp., + 16 inserted plates. Each engraved image depicts the titular good boy engaged in less desirable activities, such as throwing stones, feeding scraps to the family pet, and drawing on the walls. Each is accompanied by a pithy couplet drawn from the soliloquy. The author..... More
Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1972. iv, 57pp. One of 200 copies. A no-nonsense guide to Greek grammar, intended to "smooth the student's way and enliven his task at the start." In the Preface, the author thanks Glen Dawson for his generous contribution of twenty dollars, which allowed for the..... More
New York: Mahlon Day, 1832. 16mo. 18pp., including inside wrappers. Illustrated with frontispiece, title-page and two smaller vignettes, and ten half-page figures, all wood engravings. Contains the title poem, as well as "The Cradle Hymn," "Winter Evening's Amusement," and ends with "The Duties of Children." This edition also carries a...... More
London: Dean & Co., (c. 1960). Three 12mo rag books, + two sets of original artwork. Artwork heavily annotated and in full color. The three published books are My Train Set, Our Nursery, and My Dolls; the artwork, rendered directly on boards, applies to the latter two. The pencil notes..... More
Ashland, OR: Jubilation Press, (2010). Square octavo. (15)ff., accordion-fold. One of 100 copies. This brightly-colored abecedarium is a celebration of boys' creative, youthful spirits. Each letter is illustrated and surrounded by phrases and words beginning with that letter. For example, the letter "I" shows a child ice skating with his..... More
Paris: Didot, Typographie de Firmin, (c. 1810). 125pp., + (8)ff. Eight engravings on beige paper. The absurd adventures of Pierrot, born from a turkey's egg to La Fee Gourmande, and dedicated to gourmandise from that moment on, until his gluttony proves too much and dooms him. An extremely rare cautionary..... More
NY: Shackman, 1967. An uncut rectangle of cloth printed with three replicas of large, antique doll patterns, measuring 18 by 24 inches. The dolls are elaborately costumed in fancy nineteenth-century dresses with puffed sleeves and full skirts: one wears a dress with a tiered skirt trimmed with lace, a lace..... More
London: Pollock's Rag Toys, 1967. Two hand-printed pieces of cloth with uncut patterns for very large rag dolls, measuring 22 by 25 inches. The costume styles date from the early nineteenth century. The first pattern, Little Lizzie, is a young girl dressed in a Regency-style empire dress in a blue..... More
London: J. Drewry, (c. 1790). 12mo. 24pp. Decorated with the cover illustration, title-page vignette, and six text figures from woodcuts. An early appearance of this popular rhyme, which first appeared in 1765. The Osborne catalogue notes that John Drewry "is considered to be Derbyshire's most notable typographer and its first..... More
London: Cassell & Company, Limited, (1928). Quarto. 251pp., + 12 plates. One of 1,000 copies signed and numbered by the artist. Illustrated with twelve brightly-colored full-page plates by Dulac, protected by tissue guards. This copy bound in the style of Kelliegram by Asprey in full green morocco with an inset..... More
Van Nuys: Hoffman, Richard J., 1988. 82pp. One of 250 copies signed by the printer. Text first published in 1921. The type ornaments chosen by Hoffman are arranged chronologically by designer (Garamond, Granjon, Rogers) and printed in color. The introduction refers to the printer's late friend, who insisted that the..... More
Leipzig: Pavla Riube, (c. 1880). Small quarto. 8pp., + six plates laid in throughout. The chromolithographed images illustrate the major events of the story commonly known to English-speaking audiences as "Sleeping Beauty," from the princess's birth, to the pricking of her finger on the spindle, and, finally, to her reawakening..... More
Mill Valley, CA: Figment Press, (n.d.). (12)ff. One of 150 copies signed by the printer/illustrator Diane Weiss. Printed in red and black, with type ornaments in blue, a "Smokey the Bear" postage stamp tipped-in, and delightful hand-colored pictures. As the bear grows up, the type and the pages increase in..... More
