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
(Germany: c. 1850). Very rare boxed set, consisting of two identical 7-inch-tall female paper dolls, both two-sided. With eight brightly colored costumes, also two-sided, and eight hats and hairstyle pieces. The wardrobe includes outfits for all occasions: a practical brown-striped skirt and warm lace-trimmed cloak, a stately crimson damask gown..... More
(England: c. 1900). A set of nine hand-drawn and aquatinted costumes, each matted separately, with a delicately featured lady's head that transfers between the costumes by fitting into a slot at the neck. The costumes include a riding habit flowing down the side of a horse, outdoor wear, and dresses..... More
Akron, OH: Saalfield Pub. Co., 1933. Oblong folio. (6)ff. First edition. Intact and unused paper doll book of a fully-stocked grocery store. Includes 206 perforated pieces printed on heavy card stock. The grocery store is well-stocked with a detailed and thorough selection of foodstuffs: sweets, produce, baking ingredients, meats, and..... More
(c. 1940s). A set of paper toy figures which together display a tableau of a tribe of Native Americans. The set contains eleven Native Americans (two share a single cut-out panel) wearing headdresses, brandishing weapons, riding horses, smoking pipes, and weaving. There are also two cut-out panels as set-pieces -..... More
(Cambridge, MA: Runcible Press, ca.1985). (54)pp., frenchfold. One of 50 copies, signed by the artist/author, Marian Parry. With twenty-six delightful linoleum cuts in black & white, including such "beasts" as a gargoyle, a jabiru, a nautilus, and a xerus. Printed on Kozo paper and stab-sewn in decorated red paper. Minor..... More
NY: Simon and Schuster, 1958. First edition. Inscribed by the artist, Marian Parry, at the front flyleaf. Parry's many line drawings bring whimsy to Winsor's equally fantastical, intergalactic takes on classic Mother Goose tales. For example, Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, and "the radar has failed to find..... More
Flansham: Greenleaf Press, (1915). 16mo. (16)pp. Inscribed, "With best wishes from the folk at Flansham. Xmas 1915," and illustrated with nine tipped-in engravings. The publication and illustrations were done by Stuart, Robin, and John Guthrie, the sons of James Guthrie of the Pear Tree Press. This is the first book..... More
(Flansham): Pear Tree Press, (1920). Octavo. 25pp. This collection of short children's poems is heavily illustrated with wood engravings by Stuart Guthrie, son of Pear Tree Press founder James Guthrie. The six full-page illustrations and fourteen smaller images used as head- and tailpieces are printed in four colors: blue, green..... More
London: Warren Editions, 1981. One of fifty copies. An enchanting peep show by the well-known children's author and illustrator Harold Jones. Comprised of six layered panels, plus the illustrated front panel bearing the title and viewing aperture. Looking into the viewing aperture reveals a glimpse deep into a forest filled..... More
(Berlin: Oscar Michaelis, 1896). Printed by S. Schottlaender, Breslau. A colorful telescopic view of the Industrial Exhibition’s main hall, comprised of six bright, chromolithographed panels attached on the sides by accordion-folded paper. The front panel shows the outside of the hall, and the viewer looks through a small hole to..... More
Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1856. Small quarto. 67pp., printed one side only. A collection of verse, accompanied by lively silhouette engravings. This is one of several children's books published as a partnership between Phillips, Sampson & Co. and translator "Cousin Fannie" in the 1850s. In advertising Red Beard's Stories..... More
Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney, 1834. 24mo. 31pp. The first Phinney edition of this familiar tale. With ten woodcuts, very neat indeed, and three more on the yellow wrappers. Previous young owners' names to front wrapper, wear to extremities, and some foxing to interior, else a near fine copy. More
London: Grant & Griffith, 1852. Oblong quarto. (5)ff. Five hand-colored plates illustrate comical urchins demonstrating the senses, including the rare “Seeing” plate, which shows two boys peering into a box-shaped peep-show at a fair while the proprietor says, “Now then gents, open yr eyes, blow yr precious noses, and don’t..... 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
NY: Thomas Nelson, 1928. Oversized proof plate from Willy Pogany's Mother Goose, illustrating the numbers one through five and a child's finger in the mouth of a caught fish. Below the image is the rhyming text, whose simple, clever meter assists a young learner in remembering their numbers. Plate shows..... More
Cambridge, MA: Pomegranate Press, 1972. Broadside. About 300 copies. A striking presentation of this fanciful poem, silkscreened in turquoise, purple and orange by Karyl Klopp. Very fine. (Measures 25 inches wide by 19 inches tall). More
(Berkeley, CA): Poole Press, 1986. (6)ff. Copy number one of 40 copies signed by the creator, Maryline Poole Adams. As Samuel Pepys' diary unfolds we see a pop-up London Bridge with a movable boat passing under it, a movable slatted theater scene, and, viewed from a pop-up Tower of London..... More
Chicago: Pleasure Books, Inc., 1935. 16mo. (18)pp. Three double-page pop-ups unfurl to show some of the more stressful moments in this particular episode of Buck Rogers' intergalactic travels; banners label them as "The Battle with the Monster," "Tossed in the Torrent," and "Attacked by the Giant Reptile." Additional black &..... More
NY: Blue Ribbon Press, 1934. 16mo. (18)pp. Three double-page pop-ups, two of which are at the front and rear pastedowns, show with requisite drama the haphazard and occasionally chivalrous adventures of Puss in Boots. Added to them throughout the text are black & white illustrations. Some exterior rubbing to pictorial..... More
Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Co., (1935). Square octavo. 25pp. This story tells of the adventures of Bozo the Teddy Bear and is illustrated throughout in black & white and with three colorful pop-up illustrations. Pop-ups show the bear's face, the toy shop (whose door opens and shuts), and the wind..... More
Philadelphia: B. Wilmsen, (c. 1880). Octavo. (10)pp. "Triumph Edition." Each spread shows a two-page chromolithograph—for a total of five—embellished by one or more tissue fans. The classic fairytale thus gains an unusual liveliness, with roofs, treetops, and bedcovers extending beyond the page in abstract arcs of color. Bound in chromolithograph..... More
London: Bancroft & Co, (c. 1960). Quarto. 7, (1)pp. Tri-fold pictorial boards, with lower cover unfolding into a table-top pop-up image of the many animals boarding Noah's Ark. The scene has a humorous flair; a fox plays chess with a stork and a panther, a male crocodile smokes a pipe..... More
NY: Blue Ribbon Books, (1933). First edition. Over one hundred Mother Goose rhymes illustrated with four color pop-ups by Lentz. The double-page pop-ups include Mother Goose flying on a goose, blackbirds popping out of a pie, Old King Cole, and Humpty Dumpty after his fall. Bound in pictorial boards with..... More
London: Dean & Son, (c. 1880). Quarto. (8)pp. Illustrated with three pop-up images, which operate with threads that run through the pages of the book. As the pages turn, the threads tense or slacken, and thus cause the overlaid illustrations to rise or fall. Throughout, text at the very top..... More
London and NY: Frederick Warne & Co., (c. 1890s). 16mo. (4)ff. Including the front cover, five color lithograph panels, each one a three-dimensional pop-out, display highlights of a visit to the zoo. A tiger, two lions, a zebra, a bear, and an enormous elephant gaze out at the viewer; most..... More
