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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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
Philadelphia: Morgan & Yeager, 1824. 12mo. 6ff. Illustrated with hand-colored wood engravings throughout. This poem formed part of a series of seven similar works collected under the title Grateful Tributes, published in London around 1812. As separate works, these titles were issued by various publishers and ascribed to various authors... 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
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
(Malaysia): Bayard Jeunesse, 2007. Small quarto. (16)pp. A book of pop-up images depicting father and child animals, together with two pop-up maquettes of the father squirrel and the father bear as separate examples of this book's skillful paper-crafting, both signed by the paper engineer, Jean-Charles Rousseau. Each short poem is... 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
Windsor, VT: Ide, Simeon, 1829. 24mo. 62pp. With woodcut frontispiece, five tailpieces, additional woodcut illustrations to recto and verso of rear wrapper, and a page of alphabets in two different types. Contains rules for children's behavior and much on morals and religion. This is a later, truncated edition based on... More
NY: Tuffy Books, 1990. Octavo-sized Tuffy Tote Book with accompanying design templates and original artwork. Book is (12)pp. These items demonstrate the design process for children's board books, with particular attention in the templates to text layout, branding, and die-cuts that enhance illustrations on either side of a page. The... 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
Waikiki (Honolulu): Fisher Corporation, 1946. Quarto. (126)pp. Illustrated with twenty-nine color plates by Marcel Cailliet, which richly depict different aspects of a Hawai'ian luau. Images of the food, dancing, music, and people together evoke the joy and excitement of a traditional luau. Each illustration is preceded by a transparent guard... More
NY: Scribner, 1925. Folio. 46pp. First edition. Described by Parrish's bibliographer, Coy Ludwig, as "sumptuous," this volume is considered to be the most outstanding example of Parrish's book illustration. Ludwig continues that the "illustrations, printed in rich colors...were the highest quality reproductions that could be had." Illustrations are from original... More
New York: Mahlon Day, 1832. 16mo. 18pp. (inside wrappers included in pagination.) Illustrated with frontispiece, title page and two smaller vignettes, and ten half-page figures, all wood engravings. Contains the title poem, as well as "The Cradle Hymn," "Winter Evening's Amusement," and ends with "The Duties of Children." This edition... 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, (1996). (37)pp. One of 150 copies, signed by the binder Tim Sheppard. The Silver Penny ABC was originally printed as a chapbook in 1818 and is reproduced here with "Of the Fatal Effects of Bad Education" and "The Moral" following the ABC. Illustrated with engravings, some of... 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 accordionfold 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
(N.p. c. 1890). 24mo. (56)pp; (42)pp. With copious illustrations in both color and monochrome. Blow books are classic magic tricks, most popular through the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The magician presents the book and riffles through it, showing a set of like illustrations. Then with the book closed, he or... 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
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
(NY): McLoughlin Bros. (c. 1859-1862). 24mo. (8)pp. Part of the Mother's Series. Hand-colored illustrations throughout. Rhyming verse about Henry Brown, the son of a carpenter who works hard and studies hard. His good character earns him success, and he is rewarded with a place in Congress and a beautiful wife... 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
NY: Mermaid Press, 1962. (14)pp. The only miniature book of the Press, printed and illustrated in several colors. An alphabetic rhyme about what "Nancy, whom all of us should abhor," did to her cat. Fine in printed boards with clear plastic dust wrapper and slipcase. (Bradbury, p. 147). (2 3/8 by 1 13/16; 61x47mm). More
