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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Dresden: Karl Max Seifert, (1906). Puzzle with painted plaster tiles + oblong 16mo. booklet. (6)ff. A comforting, brightly colored toy, the features of which mimic the basic elements of a garden: pathways, flower beds, and grass. The accompanying booklet suggests six different arrays for the pieces, thereby reinforcing prized tenets..... More
(France: H. Rousseau, c. 1846-8). A set of three hand-colored wooden jigsaw puzzles lithographed by J. Froment and measuring 13 by 10 inches (33x25cm). Each puzzle is illustrated with six portraits of European rulers, in full regalia, with detailed jewels, orders, decorations, and crowns. Among the countries represented are Portugal..... More
(N.p. c. 1900). Boxed set of two puzzles, each featuring nine silhouette images formed from four blocks apiece. Each puzzle has a corresponding guide on paper against blue card. The first puzzle depicts well-known and well-loved scenes from Johann David Wyss' tale, with the silhouettes a marvelous format for presenting..... More
London: Harrap, (1935). Quarto. 318pp. One of 460 copies, signed by Rackham. Illustrated throughout with twelve color plates and seventeen plates in black & white. These gruesome, sadistic illustrations perfectly suit Poe's dark tales. Hamilton writes, "This masterly interpretation of Poe's stories is a fine example of the professional illustrator..... More
(Vienna: c. 1810). Single folio sheet, on which is printed twenty rebus cards, to be cut out. Each card has a very fine hand-colored stipple engraving. A few examples are: a man bowing before a statue of Cupid, a sunset, three children sledding, and Napoleon sitting on an upper-case “B.”..... More
Boston: 1888. (5)ff. Hand-written rebus with cut-out illustrations pasted on the letterhead of "Howard Gannett, Publisher and Bookseller." Provides humorous prescriptions for obtaining and retaining good health, which include "Sleep without boots near an open (window)" and "Rise before you wake up-- early before the (stars) have gone." The result..... More
(Derby: Richardson, n.d. (c. 1835). 48mo. (12) pp. (wrappers included in pagination). Title-page vignette and six small woodcut illustrations. Rare provincially-published abridgement of the Dick Whittington tale, known only in one institutional copy. Front wrappers toned, otherwise near fine. More
NY: Windmill Books, 1970. Quarto. (23)ff. Comforting tales of middle America, illustrated by one of the nation's most beloved artists. Near fine in full green cloth and dust wrapper. More
NY: Windmill Books, 1969. Quarto. (23)ff. Second printing. An endearing collection of children's stories both humorous and earnest, all accompanied by Rockwell's characteristically nostalgic artwork. Bound in full blue cloth. Some fading about edges, minor rubs, else very good in very good dust wrapper. More
Banbury: J. G. Rusher, (1814). 64mo. 16pp. Illustrated with engravings throughout, which follow Whittington's rise from poverty to mayoralty, with the help, and occasional troublemaking, of his cat. Bound in paper wrappers, somewhat toned and with a tear along the tail of the spine. Near Fine. More
Banbury: J. G. Rusher, (c. 1810). 64mo. 16pp. Illustrated throughout with engravings depicting the stages of Tom Thumb's journey, including falling into the king's lunch, riding a butterfly, and battling a spider. Below each are two or three stanzas of verse describing, often humorously, the events. Bound in plain wrappers..... More
Banbury: J. G. Rusher, (c. 1820). 32mo. (16)pp. Each page begins with an engraving, followed by a poem, that adds to the cast of characters in Jack's house. Then follows some moral lyrics, likewise accompanied by exemplary images. Bound in blue wrappers with ragged bottom edge, pages unopened, else a...... More
Banbury: J. G. Rusher, (c. 1830). 32mo. 16pp. Replete with etchings showing farmyard animals and children at play and at work. Each etching accompanies rhyming verses bemoaning lacksadasical or arrogant children, praising those who are and humble and hardworking, and humorously describing the quirks of various animal companions. Uncut. Bound..... More
NY: Random House, 1962. First edition. A very small bug by the name of Van Vleck is yawning, and soon the whole world catches it. Every page is full of Dr. Seuss's (Theodore Geisel's) wacky color illustrations. Scant wear to edges of pictorial boards, else near fine in near fine..... More
(Hamburg: Gustav Seitz, c. 1859. 12mo. (16)pp. With chromolithograped illustrations throughout. A charming and rare shaped book which draws upon the Germanic and Norse traditions of a solstice figure, here embodied by King Winter, whose reign over the world is aided by his queen, and by Jack Frost. The verse..... More
NY: The Press Pub. Co., 1902. Octavo. (16)pp. Die-cut shaped book, produced as a giveaway item in association with The World for Sunday, December fourteenth. Illustrated throughout, with line-drawn images and text in green ink on eight pages, and full-color pictures on the other eight, including the pictorial covers. These..... More
(Vejprty, Czechoslovakia: Brauer a Gutberlet, c. 1928). Quarto. 9ff. Color and sepia illustrations on each page by Karla Rohra. A poem, in Czech, about a teddy bear bored with his life in the nursery, who goes off into the world and discovers that his old life was not so bad..... More
(Bexhill, Sussex): Silver Thimble Books, 1983. (42)pp. One of 500 copies signed by the author/artist. A comic, verse retelling of a familiar fairy tale, illustrated with line drawings. Very fine in cloth with pictorial label. (2 1/8 by 1 5/8; 54x43mm). More
Isleworth: Smallberry Green Secondary Modern School, 1958. Illustrated with linocuts, both colored and plain. According to the Foreword, this book was produced by "4th year A, B and C boys" as a thematic companion to two other illustrated works also having to do with animals. Each animal treated here is..... More
(Austin, TX): Tarantula Press, 1985. (6)pp. bound accordion fold. An absurd tale of a young boy's mishandling of a stray dog. Fine in paper wrappers. More
Melbourne: Sign of the Rabbit, 1905. Small quarto. (32)pp. Extremely rare first edition. Illustrated with sixteen woodcut illustrations in the Japanese style, six of which are double-page spreads. All but four minor illustrations are hand-initialed in ink by the contributing artist. Set opposite the illustrations, the letterpress-printed verse is a...... More
(London): Theatre Royal, 1829. Broadside playbill for Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1829 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, advertising "a musical piece called The Sublime & Beautiful," followed by "The Farce of the Invincibles," and a "New Comic Pantomime" called "Harlequin and Little Red Riding Hood; or the Wizard and the..... 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
(Exeter, NH): C. Norris & Co., 1812. 142pp. A charming thumb Bible with significant stories told in prose followed by supplements with references to verses. Bound in full brown leather with gilt decorations to spine and covers, including the monogram "E. L." to upper cover. Rear flyleaf torn and small..... More
NY: Hurst & Company, (c. 1880). 192pp. Twenty-five engravings—one frontispiece and each of the remaining twenty-four introducing a chapter—depicting significant scenes from the Bible. Among them appear Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Pharaoh being swallowed up in the Red Sea, and Peter's denial of Christ. The volume..... More
