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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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
London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1961. Quarto. 147pp. One of 500 copies. The illustrations by Carlile "are in the traditional eighteenth century style of Bengal, sharp white lines on a black background, overprinted in brown." Bound in gilt-stamped brown cloth. Faint toning to top of upper cover, minimal rubbing to corners... More about Folk Tales and Fairy Stories from India
(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 about Pig Bean Bag Toy
(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 about Pig Bean Bag Toy
Reading, MA: Young Scott Books, 1971. First edition thus. Signed by Gorey on the title-page. With Gorey's large color illustrations surrounding Ennis Rees' whimsical poetic interpretations of Aesop. Near fine in orange pictorial boards and matching very good dust wrapper. (Toledano B47a). More about Lions and Lobsters and Foxes and Frogs. Fables from Aesop
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. First edition. Illustrated by Pat Marriott, with jacket design by Gorey. Bound in red cloth over boards with black wolf stamped to upper cover. General mild edgewear, else very good in very good price-clipped dust wrapper. (Toledano D-Aiken). More about The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
NY: Harcourt, Inc., 2002. Small quarto. (71)pp. One of twenty-six lettered copies of a special issue to the first Gorey edition of Belloc's Tales, which were originally published in London in 1907. Gorey's 61 illustrations frame the verses in perfect macabre humor. Belloc's Tales may well have influenced Gorey's own... More about Cautionary Tales for Children
NY: Meredith Press, 1968. First edition. "An opera book without libretto or score". Some edgewear to book, slight splay to upper board, else very good in very good dust wrapper. (Toledano A27a). More about The Blue Aspic
NY: Adama Books, 1987. Illustrated with red, blue, and yellow bugs in all sorts of activities as they strive to maintain the order of their community social life. In white pictorial boards, slightly skewed, with some foxing to text block. Very good. (Toledano A5c). More about The Bug Book
NY: Meredith Press, 1967. First edition. "In which a self-banished cat named Fletcher and the exquisite Zenobia...find their transport to delight atop a huge and magnificent tree." Near fine, in pictorial boards with matching very good dust wrapper. (Toledano A25). More about Fletcher and Zenobia
NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999. First edition. One of 750 copies, signed by Gorey. An adventure in verse of a man and his companion, the Bahhumbug. The end of their journey marks the start of the new millenium. With Bahhumbug beanbag toy, well-dressed in suit, tie, and spats, and standing a.... More about The Headless Bust. A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millenium
NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999. First edition. One of twenty-six lettered copies, signed by Gorey. An adventure in verse of a man and his companion, the Bahhumbug. The end of their journey marks the start of the new millennium. With Bahhumbug beanbag toy, well-dressed in suit, tie, and spats, and standing... More about The Headless Bust. A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium
NY: Simon and Schuster, 1968. First edition. "Perfectly incomplete in itself....full of mysteries and enigmas which are not solved, of secrets and short cuts that are never explained." Faint staining to initial pages and to head and tail of spine, else near fine in very good dust wrapper. (Toledano A29a)..... More about The Other Statue. The Secrets: Volume One
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
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 about The Utter Zoo
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969. First edition. A story of Donald and his quest to find and care for an animal friend. Near fine in illustrated boards with near fine dust wrapper, dollar price clipped off, while British price remains. (Toledano B41a). More about Donald and the
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
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
