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 ...
Read more about Children's Books and Toys
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: 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
Great Britain: Frederick Warne & Co., (1925). Oblong 64mo. Each page with colored illustrations by Greenaway, which first appeared in her 1887 Almanack. Bound in cloth-backed pictorial boards. Some soiling to exterior, else near fine in mildly chipped original glassine. 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
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
Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1945. Folio. (14)ff., two of which fold out, + (7) strips. Intact and unused paper activity book designed by Italian artist Edina Altara. Includes a wide variety of colorful paper toys and dolls: an illusionist, finger-puppet dancing girls, a three-dimensional carousel, a regiment of soldiers, birds and..... 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
London: MacMillan, 1895. Octavo. xxxviii, 260, (4)pp. With Frank Calderon's ten black & white plates, and many smaller illustrations in the text. Introduction and notes by Joseph Jacobs. In an attractive publisher's binding of blue cloth, liberally gilt-stamped with a picture of the fox and some chickens among twining Art..... More
NY: Viking Press, 1933. First edition. Inscribed by the illustrator, Boris Artzybasheff, to Dorothy Lathrop. Twenty of Artzybasheff's inventive, cartoonish wood engravings illustrate ninety of Aesop's famed fables. Artzybasheff's work, both in book illustration and commerical art, adopted the graphic and the grotesque, imbuing humanity, both in implicit emotion and..... More
London: Heinemann, 1912. Quarto. xxx, 224pp. One of 1450 copies, signed by the artist, Arthur Rackham. Contains thirteen color plates tipped-in on brown paper, and 53 illustrations in black & white. Translated by V.S. Vernon Jones, with an Introduction by G.K. Chesterton. Bound in tan paper-covered boards backed with dark..... More
Budapest: Borda Antikvárium, 1997. Slim octavo. (18)ff. One of 70 copies, signed by Regina Szász, who designed, illustrated, and bound the book. A charming, bilingual edition, printed in brown and black on colored papers, with a fold-out illustration for each fable. The Italian text is printed in such a way..... More
London: Stockdale, John, 1793. Four quarto volumes. xi, 225; vii, 188; lxv, 189 (misnumbered 891); xi, 228pp. First editions, first issues, of both sets, printed with the long "s." The Gay volumes are illustrated with an engraved title page and engravings by various artists, including William Blake, who freely adapted..... More
NY: Frederick A. Stokes Company, (1924). First American edition. One of only 250 copies designated for the United States from a total edition of 2,000. The handsomely produced and lavishly illustrated tale of an old man who builds a square-rigged ship with the help of fairy artisans, and sails through..... More
(Otley, Yorkshire: J. S. Publishing & Stationery Co., Ltd., c. 1850). Sixteen 16mo. issues, each 8pp., comprising a complete series, as indicated on the back covers of each issue. All the chapbooks are illustrated with woodcuts on every page, and approximately half of the illustrations in each are hand-colored. The..... More
Dordrecht: A. Blusse & Zoon, (c. 1794). 24mo. 24pp., + 8 plates. The engraved plates depict the marvels of a fair and the street performances therein, including dancing, singing, and a magician, all hand-colored. Particular highlights include a hurdy-gurdy man and a magic lantern show featuring a naval battle. The..... More
NY: Samuel Wood & Sons, (1823). 24mo. 68pp. Small engravings throughout provide visual references for each stage of this young reader's primer. The primer's front matter includes a reprinting of its trademark, as issued by the Southern District of New York, as well as a preface written by the publisher..... More
London: A. Park, c. 1840. Quarto. 6ff. First and last page pasted to inside covers. Illustrated with sixteen handcolored lithographed engravings, presumably by the publisher, Arthur Park, an engraver, lithographer, and artist who produced figures and scenes for juvenile toy theaters. He emigrated to America in 1842. The text covers..... More
Paris: Marcilly Ainé, (1825). Six 32mo. volumes, 31pp. each, except "Normandie," which is 32pp. Each volume bears two full-page color engravings, focusing on the different attire worn in the various French regions represented among the set and some of their most notable cities. The six volumes discuss Normandy, Béarn and..... More
NY and Toronto: Frederick A. Stokes, 1941. 32mo. (10)pp. A pleasantly illustrated children's book demonstrating a young girl's education in the use of "please," by means of asking for a miniature book. In a clever publication move, the miniature book itself appears at the final page, tucked in a pocket..... More
(Mexico City: D. E. Herrero Y Cia, c. 1955). Oblong octavo. (56)pp. Tenth edition (stated). With a pedagogical outline from the Secretary of Education. Beginning with correct posture for standing and running, the text covers a wide range of topics designed to encourage good habits, understand natural phenomena, and become..... More
York: J. Kendrew, (c. 1820). 48mo. A collection of verses for children, illustrated throughout with woodcut vignettes on nearly every page, and a large cut of a preacher at his pulpit to the rear cover. Slight split starting to spine, else near fine in white printed wrappers. (Davis 42; Gumuchian..... More
NY: Kiggins & Kellogg, (c. 1860). 32mo. 24pp. Decorated with various wood engravings. An impressive collection of riddles and rebuses, for at-home amusement. Bound in pale pink wrappers. Fine. More
