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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Philadelphia, Balitmore, New York, Boston: Fisher and Brother, (c. 1850). 32mo. 9pp. Eight hand-colored etchings, as well as a hand-colored front cover. Each page bears four lines on the joys of coming home from school, from games to meals to family. Bound in paper wrappers, with some insignificant wear along..... 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
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
Chicago: Ideal Book Builders, 1912. Oblong octavo. (8)ff. A children's toy book, in which eight board pages, printed recto only, show various scenes with flowers, children, and various animals in their natural habitats, all with faces missing. The directions at the verso of the front cover indicate that the child..... 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), 1978. A cotton beanbag of a beatifically smiling cat, the color of café au lait, dressed in a jaunty blue and grey striped jersey. This is one of five bean bag animals in a collection designed by Edward Gorey and produced by Toy Works..... 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
(1994-1999). A charming, useful array of Gorey-related gifts: a rubber stamp set, a pack of gift tags, sticker sheets, and a large sheet of wrapping paper with panels from Gorey tales depicted against a red background. All as new, other than some minor tearing to edge of wrapping paper. More
(N.p.): Scholastic Magazines, Inc., 1973. Gorey's brightly-colored characters in medieval dress, one inch to two-and-a-half inches tall, are ready to punch out of nine-inch cardboard squares. Tabs allow use as finger-puppets or free-standing figures. The set has sixteen identical groups of seven figures each, on eight cardboard panels. With printed..... 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, 1965. Oblong 32mo. (48)pp. Inscribed by the author to the publisher, William Sloane, and his wife: "for Bill and Julie - / who saved one another from egregious / salvation, with love from one poetaster / who never tried to save anyone from /..... More
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966. First edition. Inscribed by the author and his wife, Judith, to William Sloane, the publisher, and his wife: "for Father William and Mother Julie / from Father John and Mother Judith / and (alas) from the Three Gremlins - / with monstrous but ever fond wishes /..... More
San Francisco: Troubador Press, 1979. First softcover edition. Signed by Gorey. A collection of hidden picture puzzles, codes, and mazes features some of Gorey's signature characters. A near fine copy, in pictorial wrappers, somewhat rubbed. (Toledano B64a). More
NY: Looking Glass Library, (1959). 24mo. (16)ff. True first edition. One of 600 copies. Signed by Gorey. A quirky vignette of bug social life, printed in four colors. This is Gorey's fifth book, and one of his rarest - particularly signed. Spine faintly toned, else fine in printed wrappers. Bookplate..... More
(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
NY: Peter Weed, (1987). Oblong octavo. Stated second printing. Signed by Gorey. Fine in pictorial black and white boards with matching dust jacket. More
NY: (1965-1988). Eight first editions of some of Edward Gorey's most well-known works: The Remembered Visit. Simon and Schuster: NY, 1965. General rubbing to edges and corners of pictorial boards, soiling to price-clipped dust wrapper. Good. The Gilded Bat. Simon and Schuster: NY, 1966. Some edgewear to pictorial boards and dust wrapper..... 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: 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: E. P. Dutton, 1967. First edition. Numerous drawings by Gorey illustrate this amusing tale of Christmas decorations. Fine with a full color dust wrapper illustration by Gorey. More
NY: Atheneum, 1972. First edition. With full-page illustrations by Edward Gorey in olive, black and red. An entertaining interpretation of Red Riding Hood, based on the version of the story by the Brothers Grimm and "retold in verse for boys and girls to read themselves." Foxing and toning at edges..... 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: 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
