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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Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1847. Square 32mo. 168pp. Illustrations throughout - some of a stick figure in action, others more detailed and artful - provide visual aid to the various physical challenges the book advocates. Among these are such fabled activities as "Horse Exercise," "Leaping with the Pole," and "Giant..... More
Fakenham: J. T. Miller, 1859. 16mo. 19pp. Frontispiece illustration of page sixteen, showing the bear family in the moment of shocked discovery of the sleeping Goldilocks (in this version named "Silver Hair"). A provincial printing of Southey's tale, first printed in 1837, but here Southey's wily old woman has mutated..... More
(Andover, MA): American Tract Society, (1823). 16mo. 24pp. Frontispiece, text figure, and tailpiece from wood engravings. Two clergymen here, by way of an elogated and narrative bit of supposed reportage, tell of the tragic death of a boy, whose commitment to his young but fervent faith serves as a noble..... More
Poughkeepsie, NY: Artists and Writers Guild, 1935. Square octavo. (14)ff., + opaque tissue sheets. A clever, interactive book calling on children to use scissors or a penknife to cut out the negative space in a printed image, and to fill in the then-missing background with colored paper so that, when..... More
Épinal: Pellerin et Cie. (c. 1870). 16mo. (24)pp, accordionfold. The book guides the reader along the busy city streets, navigating through and identifying the various sellers in alphabetical order, by way of hand-colored engravings. The alphabet, as typical for the language, omits "W;" and "X" and "Y" appear on the..... More
Bath, NY: R. L. Underhill, (c. 1840). 48mo. 16pp. Seven engravings, including to title page and final tail-piece. A classic fairytale for the era of the wanderings of children and avuncular benevolence. Bound in tan wrappers, printing to both covers. Some foxing throughout, faint exterior soiling, else near fine. More
London: J. Harris, 1818. 32mo. 15pp., + 12 plates of engravings. Each illustration is fully colored and shows a remarkable depth of field and detail. These are not hasty sketches brushed by a disinterested hand; rather, they evince artful care and an eye for pleasing palettes. They grant a particular..... More
Paris: A. Bedelet, (1863). Oblong 16mo. (13)ff. After an engraved title page, which in twelve miniatures prefaces the inventions subsequently mentioned, and an alternate lithographed title page printed on the verso of the following sheet, each page shows two side-by-side tinted lithographs, with titles above and captions below. The twenty-two..... More
Philadelphia: Morgan & Yeager, (c. 1825). 12mo. (12)ff. Engraved title page; frontispiece and ten hand-colored copperplate engravings. Verse retelling of the well-known folk tale from the Thousand and One Nights, reissued by the successors to William Charles, and incorporating the copperplate engravings from Charles's 1817 edition (see Welch 27.7). Both..... More
Moscow: Goznak, 1969. Oblong octavo. (40)pp. Mavrina's illustrations for this lush Cyrillic alphabet are at once delightfully couched in folklore and technically skilled in color and composition. The occasional letter receives a double-page spread, or highlight in metallic ink, and all suggest the drama and abundance of a stage production..... More
London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., (c. 1905). Small quarto. (8)ff. Full spreads show a chromolithographed image on one side, and a printed outline of that same lithograph on the other. Cut-outs at the top of each page provide easy access to purple, yellow, blue, red, green, and brown paints..... More
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
London: Darton and Clark, c. 1840. 32mo. 144pp. First edition. Frontispiece and three full-page lithographic plates. Text and illustrations printed on green-tinted paper. The contents are divided into sections on lions, cats, dogs, beavers, elephants, monkeys, and others, within which several brief anecdotes on each animal are gathered. Each of..... 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
NY: Appleton, (c. 1865). Octavo. 8pp. Large colored woodcuts throughout follow the amorous pursuits, and ultimate demise, of two geese. This is a translation of Michaelmas day; or, The fate of poor Molly Goosey, which, unlike other titles published by Appleton in Spanish translation for distribution in Central and South..... 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
London: A. Park, (c. 1810s). Octavo. (8)ff. Colored engravings illustrate this sometimes scientific, sometimes fantastic paternal account of the state of the Earth, and all its peoples and regions, and its moon. Bound in plain printed wrappers, which assign the book to the publisher's series of "Humpty Dumpty's Tales," the..... 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
Leningrad: Iedatel'stvo Detskaya Literatura, 1967. Small quarto. 17pp. Colorfully illustrated throughout with images of children and animals great and small, with a particularly fascinating four-page continuous illustration showing a cat's attempt to catch a televised mouse. Short phrases or verses accompany the images. A remarkable children's publication from the height..... 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
London: Harris, John, 1808. 32mo. (15)ff. Apparently an intermediate state unknown to Moon, which contains the sheets of the 6th edition (725.6), with wrappers dated 1808 with "A New and Improved Edition, with New Plates" on the upper cover, and ads listing four titles "just published", and only one "shortly..... More
