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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(NY): Random House, 1982. First edition. A macabre pop-up book, in which the family MacFizzit sets out "to visit the varied distractions of Hickyacket Hall." No price sticker, else fine in illustrated paper over boards. (Toledano A83a). More
Yarmouth Port, MA: Edward Gorey House, 2013. Oblong octavo. (30)ff. loose sheets. One of twenty-six lettered copies. An "appalling alphabet" of the dooms of twenty-six children, ranging from Amy, who falls down the stairs, to Zillah, who drinks to much gin. As in all lettered copies, after the alphabet comes..... More
Yarmouth Port, MA: Edward Gorey House, 2013. Oblong octavo. (29)ff. loose sheets. One of 100 numbered copies. An "appalling alphabet" of the dooms of twenty-six children, ranging from Amy, who falls down the stairs, to Zillah, who drinks to much gin. Gorey's signature embossed on title and colophon cards. Housed..... More
San Francisco: Troubador Press, 1982. Octavo. 40pp. Signed by Gorey. Three paper cats may be cut from the stiff rear cover, dressed in designated costumes and placed in front of morose and romantic sets drawn from Gorey's books. General edgewear, else near fine in pictorial covers. More
NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999. First edition. One of 750 copies, signed by Gorey. An adventure in verse of a man and his companion, the Bahhumbug. The end of their journey marks the start of the new millennium. With Bahhumbug beanbag toy, well-dressed in suit, tie, and spats, and standing a...... More
c. 1964. Four sheets, three of which measure 8 1/2 by 11 inches; the single sheet of text is smaller, measuring 8 by 6 inches, and is on blue paper. The pages reveal the unfolding of Gorey's creative process in developing the story and preliminary illustrations for his book, The..... More
NY: Dodd, Mead, 1978, 1979. Three 16mo volumes. All first edition reissues. All signed by Gorey. The set includes The Willowdale Handcar, a story about an adventure by handcar for no particular reason; The Gilded Bat, following the "rather monotonous" life and death of a prima ballerina named Maud; and..... More
NY: Meredith Press, 1967. First edition. "From Ampoo to Zote", this alphabet offers "an improbable menagerie for Sunday's child." Upper portion of boards foxed, slight splay to upper cover, else very good in very good dust wrapper. (Toledano A26a). More
NY: Holiday House, 1984. First edition. Signed by Gorey. The curious tale of young Treehorn's discovery of a genie in an urn and the consequences of his wishes. Bound in teal cloth over boards. Upper board somewhat splayed. Near fine in near fine dust wrapper. More
NY: Young Scott Books, (1969). First edition. Signed by Gorey, with full-page illustration. Near fine in pictorial boards and good dust wrapper with edgewear and mild toning to spine. More
NY: Young Scott, 1968. First edition. Signed by Gorey. The first poem in Lear's Book of Nonsense, adorned with illustrations, which Gorey dedicated to Foss, Lear's celebrated cat. Scant wear to extremities of pictorial boards, fine. Some toning and minor rubbing to matching dust wrapper. (Toledano B38a). More
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, (1973). Two square octavo volumes. 30pp. Both signed by Gorey. Printed in blue ink. A children's language-arts schoolbook with whimsical illustrations throughout by Edward Gorey, collecting limericks by Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Gorey himself, and many others. The unexpurgated edition features two limericks and one illustration missing..... More
NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. First edition. Signed by Gorey. A delightful comedy of errors, headed by the clumsy Flemming Flanders. Holt Library Edition, bound in pictorial boards. Faint bumps to corners and creasing at hinges, else near fine in very good dust wrapper. More
NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973. Square octavo. (88)pp. First edition. Inscribed by the author/illustrator, Hardie Gramatky, on the title page, with an ink drawing of Little Toot. Fourth in the series of children's books that started with 1939's Little Toot, Little Toot on the Mississippi tells the story of the..... More
NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1964. Square octavo. 86pp. First edition. Inscribed by the author/illustrator, Hardie Gramatky, on the title page. The first sequel to Gramatky's first children's book, 1939's Little Toot, tells the story of the adventurous tugboat's journey across the Atlantic to London. There he encounters London Bridge, the..... More
NY: E. P. Dutton and Company, (c. 1870's). 16mo. (62)pp., including illustrations and advertisements. Part of the "Our Boy's Little Library" series. Copiously illustrated with nearly forty black & white engravings and sixteen three-line initials. Artists include noted English engravers Kate Greenaway, Robert Paterson, William Luson Thomas, and George Pearson..... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. Octavo. (34)pp. A collection of uncolored images, two to six per page, which a child is invited to paint with watercolors. The interior of the front cover lays out the purpose of the book, along with a list of suggested colors and tools, and offers instructions for..... More
London: Routledge, 1882-1895, 1897. Fourteen 24mo. volumes. All in first issue bindings with the following exceptions: 1884 is the fifth variant; 1886 is the third variant; 1888 is the seventh variant; 1893 is the second variant. Each volume is illustrated throughout with full-color images by Greenaway, many of which are..... More
Worcester, MA: J. Grout, Jr., (c. 1840). 32mo. 24pp. Illustrated with a frontispiece, title-page vignette, four woodcuts, and a tailpiece. Bound in green printed wrappers illustrated with a small vignette to the front cover, and a larger woodcut of a man herding cattle to the rear cover. Corners of covers..... More
Worcester: Jonathan Grout, Jr., (c. 1840). 32mo. 24pp. Illustrated with a frontispiece, title-page vignette, six woodcuts, and a tailpiece. Bound in green printed wrappers, illustrated with a small vignette to the front cover and a larger woodcut of a man next to a stream to the rear cover. Gift inscription..... More
Bern & Biel, Switzerland: Ernst Kuhn, 1920. Square 16mo. (45)ff., printed on rectos only. First issue. A striking picture book in the Swiss dialect, illustrated with forty-two brightly colored full-page woodcuts by Erna Haas in the style of the Wiener Werkstätte. The scenes depicted in the woodcuts are charming and..... 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
London: Laurie & Whittle, 1807. 1ff. Framed engraved writing sheet with a mirror over the blank area in the center usually reserved for examples of penmanship. The mirror is near-contemporary to the writing sheet, and together they create an attractive piece that perhaps could have served as decoration in a...... More
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883. Octavo. First edition of the second Uncle Remus collection of stories. Widely illustrated with scenes from the familiar tales, including images of Brother Fox, Brother Bear, and Brother Rabbit. Bound in full yellow cloth elaborately stamped in black and with the title in..... More
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892. Octavo. First edition of Harris's third collection of Uncle Remus stories. Illustrated with twelve plates, including a frontispiece, by popular illustrator and comics artist A. B. Frost. Replete with the well-known moralizing short stories and jolly songs. Bound in green cloth decorated in black..... More
