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: Mayhew & Baker, 1858. Square octavo. (32)pp., including wrappers. One of the Fireside Picture Books. Illustrated with nine large engravings and two smaller vignettes by "Morte". Each illustration is accompanied by one of the nine verses from the Mother Goose nursery rhyme, "There was a Little Man, and he... More
London: Wallis, 1801. Complete set of ten 48mo. volumes held in a wooden box designed to resemble a bookcase. 64; 32; 64; 64; 64; 32, 32; (64); 64; 62, 2; 64pp. Nine volumes bear engraved frontispieces; those on natural history, geography and astronomy, and botany contain engraved plates, and the... More
Paris: Rignoux, 1823. Ten volumes, each with 48 pages. First edition. Illustrated with 68 plates from copper engravings and one folding map. Legrand's miniature library for children contains the following titles: Morale en Action; Mythologie; Geographie; Fables; Histoire de France; Contes; Animaux; Insectes; Mineralogie; and Botanique. Augustin Legrand (1765 -... More
Frankfurt: Berhnard Dondorf, (1854). Likely third edition. Set of eight chromolithographed three-dimensional topographic relief maps, each measuring 10 7/16 by 8 5/8 inches [265x219mm], in wooden frames. Each panel in this educational set demonstrates the topography, countries, and major features of a region: Australia and Polynesia, South America, Africa, Europe... More
Chelsea: (Southernwood Press, c. 1915). Small quarto. (23)ff. One of thirty copies printed on handmade paper. Illustrated throughout by Josephine Winser. The drawings illustrate popular nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Jack & Jill, and Sing a Song of Sixpence. Children take center stage in these depictions... 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
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
Rochester, NY: Stecher Lith. Co., 1916. Folio. (12)pp. This vibrant children's book, illustrated with twelve full-color, full-page plates, narrates the early years of George Washington's life in verse. His childhood deeds, including learning to ride a horse at age ten, chopping down his father's cherry tree, and setting out as... More
London: J. Harris, 1806. 32mo. (16)ff. First edition, Moon's fourth state with 1806 date on front wrapper, but with SMC initials on the earliest-state engraved dedication page. Illustrated with fifteen hand-colored copperplate engravings. According to Moon, this is the most significant children's book published by Harris, and surely one of... More
Boston: David R. Godine, (1981). Oblong quarto. 29pp. First edition. Inscribed on the title-page by the author/artist: "Merry Christmas from Ilse Plume & the Spirit of Befana!!" With fourteen full-page color plates. This is Plume's second published work; her first book received the Caldecott Honor in 1981. Minor edgewear and... More
NY: Simon & Schuster, 1957. Quarto. (64)pp. First edition. A children's favorite, which chronicles the kinetic Eloise's adventures in Paris. Fine in decorated red boards, small bump to bottom corner. Dust jacket shows light edgewear and split starting to head of spine, else fine. More
N.p. n.d. Small quarto. (ii), 36pp. This is a unique pre-production edition of Mary E. Williamson's children's book, which seems to never have been published. The text is handwritten in black ink, and the illustrations are hand-drawn and colored with ink and paint, all on boards. The story follows an..... More
Frankfurt A.M. Bertele, Bilder, Buecher, (c. 1925). Quarto. (26)pp. First edition. Written and illustrated with thirteen fantastic, chromolithographed plates by Kleyer, who studied under the expressionist painter and printmaker Ludwig Meidner. Kleyer’s text, which is a series of rhyming couplets printed on facing pages, concerns a family visit to a...... More
(Bristol): Lilliput Press, 1986. (25)ff. One of 55 copies indicated as the first edition, signed and numbered by the illustrator, A. Clements. An accordion-fold panorama about the language of flowers, linking each flower to an emotional state or its social interpretation. "A" is for allspice, which is associated with compassion... More
Paris: La Renaissance du Livre, 1922. Oblong quarto. (13)ff., interleaved with twelve pochoir plates. First edition. A poignant fable about the escapades of a magpie—whose body is made of a pinecone—and three little pinecone chicks as they leave the mantel of the fireplace on which they live to venture out..... More
Paris: Delarue, (c. 1820). 12mo. 90pp. With frontispiece and forty illustrations from engravings. Contains detailed explanations for performing a variety of magic tricks, including passing a ring through a stick, number divination, the “oeuf dansant,” and many others. Only three copies recorded in institutions, two of which are in the..... More
(England): 1849. Octavo. 5ff. Verse manuscript with original watercolor illustrations, including a full-page cover title and title-page and sixteen vignettes throughout. The text tells the tale of Timothy Brown, who is introduced as "a wild little lad" who constantly tears his clothes and searches for ways to spend his days... More
New York: McLoughlin Bros. 1898. Small quarto. (12)ff. A painting book for children, including six color sample pages and six pages showing the same images as outlines. With faded hues similar to those in the full-color images, the outlines suggest colors for the young painter to use. The verso of... More
NY: McLoughlin Bros. (1900). Quarto. (14)pp. A colorfully illustrated alphabet, "mounted on linen." For each letter, costumed young boys and girls play soldiers, acting out military roles from buglers to nurses to generals. Some of the children represent soldiers from different countries, including a Highlander in a kilt, a French... More
Springfield, MA: McLoughlin Bros. 1940-1941. Four quarto volumes. (60)pp. each. Illustrated throughout in color and black & white. This set of four volumes come from the McLoughlin Bros. series "The Little Color Classics," with the titles "Raggedy Ann Helps Grandpa Hoppergrass" (#843), "Raggedy Ann and the Hoppy Toad" (#844), "Raggedy... More
London: Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, (1891). Small quarto. 64pp. First edition. With photo-etched illustrations in black & white throughout by Mrs. E. M. Boyd, Mr. R. André, and by the poet, Louisa A. Meredith. Although born in Birmingham, England, Meredith moved to New South Wales, and then Tasmania, after... More
London: Methuen, (1927). First edition. Number two of 200 copies, printed on handmade paper and signed by Milne and Shepard. This famous collection of children’s verses, featuring Milne’s son Christopher Robin and his bear, is illustrated throughout with Ernest H. Shepard’s whimsical drawings. Bound in quarter cloth with orange paper..... More
London: Methuen, 1926. First edition. One of 350 copies printed on handmade paper and signed by Milne and Shepard. With all of the well-known and well-loved illustrations and a fold-out map of Pooh and Christopher Robin’s territory, which appeared in the ordinary edition as endpapers. Bound in quarter dark-blue cloth... More
NY: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1926. First American edition. Although he first appears as the subject of a poem in When We Were Very Young, this is the first book of collected stories about Edward Bear, otherwise known as Winnie-the-Pooh. The adventures of Pooh and his woodland friends are... More
London: Methuen, (1927). First edition. This famous collection of children’s verses, featuring Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, and his bear, is illustrated throughout with Ernest H. Shepard’s whimsical drawings. Signed at a later date on the title page by Shepard. Handsomely bound by Bayntun-Rivière in deep red morocco, with gilt ruled..... More
