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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London: J. S. Publishing & Stationery, (c. 1860). 32mo. 8pp. Decorated throughout with borders and captioned engravings. The primer's eight pages provide a fairly comprehensive introduction to reading and rhetoric, beginning with the English alphabet (including dipthongs) and concluding with narratively coherent sentences. Bound in teal wrappers with printed covers..... More
Guildford, Surrey, England: Genesis Publications Limited, 1985. 48mo. xxviii, 160pp. A reduced facsimile of the edition published by J. Newbery, London, in 1766, illustrated throughout with numerous woodcuts. Carl Geri's Introduction to the text provides both bibliographic and literary context. Bound in full orange leather over boards with two raised..... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1900). Small quarto. (6)ff. The bulk of the book is devoted to paper toy soldiers, among them infantrymen, cavalrymen on horseback, cannons, and a drummer, all in the 19th-century uniforms of the British army. All are set on perforated pages, on each of which is printed..... More
New York: Minard W. Wilson, c. 1850. Octavo. 24pp. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts and wood engravings of various sizes, and likely from a variety of sources. The final engraving—a portrait of John Wesley—is signed "Jocelyn NY." According to OCLC, this primer was issued under at least three New York imprints..... More
(Paris: Chez Guérin-Muller et Ce. c. 1860). Oblong 24mo. Six panels presented accordionfold, with a seventh used as cover artwork. Each panel shows a different facet of soldierhood, all of it very debonair and civilized, from "Avant le Revue [Before Reveille]" to "La Cuisine [The Kitchen]" to "Le Carousel," in..... More
Chicago: Beckley-Cardy Company, 1950. Set of twelve black-and-white posters, each depicting a different worker at their task: bricklayer, butcher, carpenter, fireman, grocer, librarian, lineman, milkman, newsboy, nurse, policeman, and postman. At the bottom of each page is a footnote assigning colors to use in each area. Other than the librarian..... More
London: McMorquodale & Co., (c. 1934). Small quarto. (20)pp. Illustrated with twenty-two full-page plates in vibrant colors, with text running underneath. The tale told here is an adaptation of the famous, and famously controversial, "Ten Little Niggers" story, but here the boys of the original become anthropomorphic balloons of various..... 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
Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, (c. 1810). 12mo. (4)pp. Contains the alphabet (excluding j and u) with illustrations and street vendors' cries, printed in six compartments per page. A very fine copy in the original olive wrappers, on which are printed upper and lower-case alphabets and two unattributed woodcuts. Mild edgewear and..... 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
Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1939. Four quarto vols. (26); (28); (24); (26)pp. A collection of four children's titles, each robustly illustrated with vibrant color images by Ballester Peña. The titles are: 1. Historia del General San Martín. An approachable retelling of José de San Martín's heroics in the liberation of..... More
NY: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1932. Octavo. 31pp. The twenty-seven pages of text are joined by twenty-seven reproduced drawings by Vivier, who illustrates scenes from President Lincoln's life in his characteristic silhouette style. Both the images and the text evoke Lincoln the legend as much as Lincoln the man. Bound..... More
NY: Harper, (1945). First edition. Illustrated with line drawings by Garth Williams. This is White’s first book for children, which was written “in the hope of amusing a six-year-old niece.” Stuart Little was a bestseller in spite of some unenthusiastic initial reviews. White spent most of his literary career writing..... More
NY: Simon and Schuster, 1958. First edition. Inscribed by the artist, Marian Parry, at the front flyleaf. Parry's many line drawings bring whimsy to Winsor's equally fantastical, intergalactic takes on classic Mother Goose tales. For example, Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, and "the radar has failed to find..... 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
London: A. Park, c. 1840. Quarto. 6ff. First and last page pasted to inside covers. Illustrated with sixteen handcolored lithographed engravings, presumably by the publisher, Arthur Park, an engraver, lithographer, and artist who produced figures and scenes for juvenile toy theaters. He emigrated to America in 1842. Part of the..... 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
(London): Dean & Son, (1860). Octavo. (6)ff. A collection of hand-colored engravings accompanied by rhyming stories about fictional people. Each story adopts a humorous tone, though some also bear moral lessons. Throughout its nineteenth-century lifespan, the publishing firm of Dean and Son specialized in innovative printing processes used in the..... More
London: Dean and Son / W. Kent & Co., (c. 1860). Octavo. Three volumes in one. (24); 30; (32)pp. A collection of three illustrated children's books published together by Dean & Son under the name Dean's Coloured Picture Book: The Home First Book. The titles herein are "The Nursery ABC..... More
London: Dean & Son, (c. 1910). Tall quarto. 12ff. First edition. Illustrated throughout in color and black & white by Gladys Hall and Eugenie Richards. A series of poems that follow the activities of the cherubic Peggy and Teddy. The artwork by Hall and Richards is dramatically similar to that..... More
