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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Philadelphia; NY: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1965. Oblong 32mo. (48)pp. Inscribed by the author to the publisher, William Sloane, and his wife: "for Bill and Julie - / who saved one another from egregious / salvation, with love from one poetaster / who never tried to save anyone from /..... More
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966. First edition. Inscribed by the author and his wife, Judith, to William Sloane, the publisher, and his wife: "for Father William and Mother Julie / from Father John and Mother Judith / and (alas) from the Three Gremlins - / with monstrous but ever fond wishes /..... More
NY: Looking Glass Library, (1959). 24mo. (16)ff. True first edition. One of 600 copies. Signed by Gorey. A quirky vignette of bug social life, printed in four colors. This is Gorey's fifth book, and one of his rarest - particularly signed. Spine faintly toned, else fine in printed wrappers. Bookplate..... More
(NY): Random House, 1982. First edition. A macabre pop-up book, in which the family MacFizzit sets out "to visit the varied distractions of Hickyacket Hall." No price sticker, else fine in illustrated paper over boards. Together with: a fine copy of the first English edition. (London), Heinemann, 1982. (Toledano A83a)..... More
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. As issued with a leftward-facing Bahhumbug beanbag toy, well-dressed in suit, tie..... More
NY: Peter Weed, (1987). Oblong octavo. Stated second printing. Signed by Gorey. Fine in pictorial black and white boards with matching dust jacket. More
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
NY: Young Scott Books, (1969). First edition. Signed by Gorey, with full-page illustration. Near fine in pictorial boards and good dust wrapper with edgewear and mild toning to spine. More
NY: Atheneum, 1972. First edition. With full-page illustrations by Edward Gorey in olive, black and red. An entertaining interpretation of Red Riding Hood, based on the version of the story by the Brothers Grimm and "retold in verse for boys and girls to read themselves." Foxing and toning at edges..... More
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
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
London: Rob't Sayer, 1771. Narrow octavo. A single sheet folded perpendicularly into four, each with flaps hinged to head and foot. Hand-colored engravings illustrate each panel. One of Sayer's earliest titles, this tale is of the Devil and the ruckus he causes. Sewn into brown wrappers. Except for some darkening..... More
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883. Octavo. First edition of the second Uncle Remus collection of stories. Widely illustrated with scenes from the familiar tales, including images of Brother Fox, Brother Bear, and Brother Rabbit. Bound in full yellow cloth elaborately stamped in black and with the title in..... More
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892. Octavo. First edition of Harris's third collection of Uncle Remus stories. Illustrated with twelve plates, including a frontispiece, by popular illustrator and comics artist A. B. Frost. Replete with the well-known moralizing short stories and jolly songs. Bound in green cloth decorated in black..... More
NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. Octavo. 231pp. First edition, first issue, of Harris' first book and the introduction of the character of Uncle Remus. With frontispiece and seven plates, title-page vignette, and numerous line illustrations throughout the text. Original green cloth, spine gilt-lettered and front cover stamped in black..... More
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
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
(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
