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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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 about The Dog and the Crocodile
Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1885. Octavo. (xii), 373pp. Illustrated throughout with black & white plates. An adventure tale of a Vermont man's shipwreck and survival on a Pacific island. Bound in illustrated light brown cloth, gilt-decorated to spine. Spine slightly cocked and some light edgewear, else about fine. More about Perseverance Island, or The Robinson Crusoe of the Nineteenth Century
Kansas: 1898-1899. Oblong octavo. (19)ff. A double accordion-fold album of thirty-one woven paper designs in brown and coral. Included in this group are two weavings with movable elements, and one in the form of a frame with an image in the center. These examples of a popular kindergarten activity were... More about Weaving (cover title
Paris: Chez tous les libraires, (c. 1841). Duodecimo. 40pp., + twenty-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 about Petit Musée National. L'histoire de France en 125 tableaux
Amsterdam: J. Vlieger, (c. 1890s). Folio. 1ff. Lithographic sheet game board, measuring 22 1/2 by 17 inches (571x431mm), released by Dutch board game publisher J. Vlieger. A variation of the classic Royal Game of the Goose, in which players take turns rolling dice to progress forward from space 1 to... More about Tramway Spel
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 about Le Noble Jeu de L'oie en France, de 1640 à 1950 / La Vie Quotidienne a Paris de 1820 à 1824
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 about Preliminary sketches and text for The Remembered Visit. Together with a copy of the published book
Newark / NY: Charles E. Graham & Co., (c. 1900). Quarto. (40)pp. Illustrated with sixteen bright full-page chromolithographed plates, including a magnificent two-page spread showing a yoke of oxen, plus another twenty-two pages of black & white illustrations. The book is divided into three sections: "Animal Pictures," "Our Bird Friends,"... More about Child's First Animal - Bird - Rhyme Book [cover title
NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968. Square octavo. (88)pp. First edition. Inscribed by the author/illustrator, Hardie Gramatky, on the title page, with an ink drawing of Little Toot. Third in the series of children's books that started with 1939's Little Toot, Little Toot on the Grand Canal tells the story of..... More about Little Toot on the Grand Canal
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 about Little Toot on the Mississippi
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 about Bright Picture Pages. Full of Stories
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, as well as a list of suggested colors and tools and instructions for... More about The Little Folks' Painting Book
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 about A complete set of Kate Greenaway's Almanacks for 1883-1895, 1897
London: Max Parrish, 1953. Small quarto. (36)pp. First edition. Publisher’s production file copy, as noted in ink on the front endpaper and the upper front panel of the dust wrapper. At the top of each page, the color register is written out with a double set of check marks. The..... More about The Little Steamroller. A Story of Adventure, Mystery and Detection
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 about Hanselima
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 about Peggy and Teddy
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 about Harlequin and Mother Goose: Or The Golden Egg
London: Grant Richards, 1904. 103pp. A comical miniature illustrating the inhabitants of London and poking fun at everyone from the telegraph boy to the sentry at Buckingham Palace. Full-page color plates by the famous British poster artist and illustrator John Hassall are accompanied by rhyming verses. In a limerick about... More about London Characters
Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, 1852. Octavo. vi, (7), 256pp. First edition. First issue, with “lifed” for “lifted” on page 21, line 3. Illustrated with a frontispiece and six plates after designs by Hammat Billings. Hawthorne’s groundbreaking attempt to retell Greek myths in a style suitable for children met with..... More about A Wonder-book for Girls and Boys
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1967. 51pp. One of 210 copies. With four full-page black and white illustrations. A fine copy in gilt-stamped polished navy blue leather. (2 5/16 by 1 7/8; 59x47mm). More about The Bell and Other Tales
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1963. 64pp. One of 350 copies. The second book of the Press. Contains six little-known tales taken from a miniature edition published in Boston, 1863, and wood-engraved vignettes from the same source. Fine in pictorial boards backed in cloth. (2 5/16 by 1 7/8; 59x48mm). More about Grimm's Fairy Tales
Buffalo: Hillside Press, 1978. 50pp. One of 250 copies. A version of the Arabian nights, illustrated in black & white. Fine in olive green cloth. (2 1/4 by 2; 59x49mm). More about Woman's Wit
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1966. xvii, 42pp. One of 375 copies. Various texts by Shakespeare with twelve silhouettes by Paul Konewka. Fine in burgundy cloth over boards, faintly rubbed. (2 5/16 by 1 15/16; 60x50mm). More about Falstaff and His Companions
Charlestown, MA: Hobbs, George W., (1850). 64mo. (32)pp. Illustrated with hand-colored vignettes at the top of each page, along with two full-page frontispieces and two interior titles. The stated title has been taken from the upper board, but the text itself is divided into two separate stories: "The Little Reward"... More about The Tiny Picture Book
Boston: Henry Hoyt, (1860). 12mo. 164pp. Each lesson is illustrated with wood engravings, and contain passages from the New Testament followed by questions and an explanatory verse. There was a second edition of this work published in 1876, issued by Hoyt's successor. This edition is known in six institutional holdings... More about The Child's Illustrated Scripture Question Book: Containing Forty-Five Lessons on the Gospels
