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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Ashland, OR: Jubilation Press, (2010). Square octavo. (15)ff., frenchfold. One of 100 copies. This brightly-colored abecedarium is a celebration of the creative, youthful spirits of boys. Each letter is illustrated and surrounded by phrases and words beginning with that letter: the letter "I" shows a child ice skating with his..... More
Paris: Didot, Typographie de Firmin, (c. 1810). 124pp. 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. In a later binding of brown..... 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
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: New Directions, 1969). Oblong quarto. 33pp. One of 100 copies printed at the Thistle Press and signed by the illustrator, Fritz Eichenberg. Illustrated with five full-page wood engravings in black & white. With an extra suite of the plates, each one signed by the artist. Suite is housed in..... More
(Essen): Hans Gerd Goldschmidt, 1979. 124pp. One of 500 copies. A selection of fables, rendered in German and illustrated with eight woodcuts. Bound in gilt-stamped brown leather with a printed dust wrapper and paper slipcase. Very fine. (2 1/4 by 1 5/8; 57x41mm). 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
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
Print Club of Cleveland, 1950. Woodcut measuring 21 by 14 1/2 inches. One of 250 copies, signed and dated by Antonio Frasconi, an artist born in Uruguay and known for his distinctive woodcuts and numerous illustrated books for children. In this depiction of Aesop’s fable, a hungry, curvaceous crocodile tempts..... More
Quarto. 37ff., accordionfold. On both the fronts and backs of the folds in this album are various mounted Froebel exercises demonstrating the twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth Gifts (though this numbering changes across Froebelian literature). This includes: one example of embroidery, featuring groups of concentric rings in lilac silk..... More
(Brooklyn: c. 1910). A collection of forty-six examples of paper-weaving from students at Bedford Academy in Crown Heights. The selection demonstrates an imaginative use of color, showing throughout a broad palette, as well as a range of skills, from simpler squares to complex geometric designs and, in one instance, a...... More
Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Co., 1906. Kit of materials for Froebel-esque paper cutting, including papers of varied colors and textures, some already cut but others intact. The kit also provides some stencils and plain backing paper, on which, in this instance, the user has pasted cut-out silhouettes of animals, people..... More
Paris: A. M., (c. 1875). Two boxed sets of materials for two types of Froebel gifts: braiding with raffia and basket-making. Le Tressage en Raphia comes with multi-colored strands of raffia, as well as tissue papers in green, red, blue, and white, and an illustrated sheet showing the various projects..... More
Paris: Chez Tous les Libraires, (c. 1841). Duodecimo. 40pp., + 20-panel leporello. Beginning with Charlemagne and closing with Napoleon, the folding tableau contains lithographed portraits of the kings of France, as well as illustrated scenes depicting historically significant events that occurred during their reign. The text in the accompanying booklet..... More
(Paris: c. 1850). Twelve hand-colored lithographs decorate the twelve question cards included in this game, which quizzes children on the scope and purpose of subjects, such as grammar, geography, architecture, and astronomy. Each question card is followed by a response card, which gives the appropriate answer. History, for example, is..... More
Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1950. Quarto. 237pp., + 48 plates, nine of which are in color. One of 700 copies. This authoritative text and bibliography on the French “Game of the Goose” and its derivatives is illustrated throughout with images relating to the game, including many whimsical geese. The plates are..... More
(Middle Falls, NY: Toy Works), 1980. This bean bag bat with wings outstretched measures approximately fifteen inches from wingtip to wingtip. The fabric is printed with a black & white crosshatched pattern that is shaded on the wings and body to give the figure more dimensionality, evoking Gorey’s characteristic drawing..... More
(Middle Falls, NY: The Toy Works), 1979. A cotton beanbag of a smiling pink pig, measuring seven inches from toe to eartip, and wearing a brown tweed jacket. In back, the turned-up vent shows that the jacket is lined to match his tasteful goldenrod bow-tie. This is one of five..... More
(Middle Falls, NY: The Toy Works), 1979. A cotton beanbag of a smiling pink pig, measuring seven inches from toe to eartip, and wearing a brown tweed jacket. In back, the turned-up vent shows that the jacket is lined to match his tasteful goldenrod bow-tie. This is one of five..... More
Philadelphia; NY: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1961. First edition. Drawings throughout by Edward Gorey accompany Ciardi's ribald poetry. Bound in full yellow cloth with a drawing reproduced in red on the upper cover. Mild toning to edges, faint foxing to paste-downs, else a very good copy with a mildly soiled..... More
NY: Meredith Press, 1968. First edition. "An opera book without libretto or score". Mild rubbing to corners, else near fine in near fine dust wrapper. (Toledano A27a). More
NY: Young Scott Books, (1969). First edition. Signed by Gorey. 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, else near fine. Some toning and minor rubbing to matching dust wrapper. (Toledano B38a). More
NY: Charles Scribner's, 1979. Folio. 21ff. First edition, first printing. The sets and costumes of the Broadway production of Dracula, which were designed by Gorey, and for which he won a Tony Award. Printed on cardboard, with instructions for cutting out and assembling the stage set, with furniture and characters..... More
