Childrens Books as Memorable Gifts

New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition with the publisher's price and the correct first issue code on the front flap. Cloth and papercovered illustrated boards. A bit of foxing to the boards, near fine in a modestly toned, very good dustwrapper with a couple of faint splash marks. Nicely Inscribed by Sendak in 1966 with a small drawing of a dog.

London New York Toronto:: Oxford University Press. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Color Illustrations; 32mo 4" - 5" tall; 4 ¾ x 4 in. [44]pp. Blue cloth with white polka dots, red lettered title and author within scalloped red frame on front cover. First Edition in scarce priced dust jacket [.75]. Color illustrations by Tudor. Spine tips and corners slightly rubbed, faint small spot on front cover, no owner’s name. Dustjacket price of $ .75 and rear flap blank. DJ spine panel moderately soiled, overall lightly toned, edges partly frayed, few small chips to ends of spine panel and lower edges of folds. Author’s first book. Hare P19. Unusually nice copy. First in the Calico series. Illustrated in color by the author; calligraphic text by Hilda . The adventures of Sylvie Ann, who sought out the largest pumpkin she could find for Halloween. Sylvie Ann was Tudor's real-life niece, who came from Scotland to visit her grandmother… Read More

New York: Random House, 1943.

London New York Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1938. First edition. Near fine in near fine jacket.. First printing of Tudor's first book, inscribed to her niece Sylvie Ann, the model and namesake of Sylvie Ann in the book, and accompanied by two letters describing the gift and receipt of the book by Tudor and Sylvie Ann's mother respectively. On the dedication page the printed text reads: "A wee story for a very sweet wee person." This is continued in Tudor's hand: "called Sylvie Ann, with just no end of love from her Aunt Tasha. This book was supposed to be your Christmas present for last year, but I couldn't send it 'till now as it had to be printed. 1938." In the printed "This Book Belongs To" box on the front pastedown, Sylvie Ann has written her name in childish script. The book is accompanied by two amazing letters: the first is a 2-page letter by Tudor to Sylvie Ann, that refers to PUMPKIN MOONSHINE as a gift for her. Dated Dec. 6, 1942, it reads: "Happy Birthday Dearest Sylvie!! I am… Read More

New York: Oxford University Press, 1938. First edition. Near fine in very good plus jacket.. First printing of the first CALICO BOOK, and Tudor's first book. Beautifully illustrated in sharp colors, each page of hand-lettered text faces a full page color illustration by Tudor. Tudor wrote the book for her niece Sylvie Ann. Scarce in the dust jacket, this is a great copy. 4.75'' x 4''. Original blue polka-dot patterned cloth. In original dust jacket. Illustrated in color by Tudor. Book cloth clean and bright with only tiny places of wear, bit of offsetting in gutters of endpapers, to small spots to fore-edge. Jacket a couple tape repair slivers to verso, very light wear on corners, faint toning to spine.

New York: Thomas Nelson, 1936. Fine in very good jacket.. First edition of Pène du Bois's notoriously scarce first book, about the ghost of a cow who is a little too sweet to scare people. Earliest version of this tale of the afterlife of the gentlest cow, sold to the publisher when du Bois was only 19 and a student at the Carnegie School of Technical Architecture; seizing the opportunity of this early success, he left school and never went back. In 1964, du Bois rewrote the text of this first edition and re-drew the illustrations for a new publication of the engagingly tragic tale; the exceedingly hard-to-find original shows starker scenes in black and white, with a haunting, floating Elisabeth the Cow the only subject in color: a fetching buttercup yellow. The Cow's trouble, familiar to many frustrated young children, lies in her inability to terrify a grown man; this is due to her gentle nature and frankly adorable physique, the former of which cannot be camouflaged by any fearful disguise.… Read More

London: Methuen, 1928. First editions. Overall fine in near-fine jackets.. Complete set of first editions of the Pooh Books, all in original dust jackets, with WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG signed by Milne and Shepard. In 1933 Compton Mackenzie described the publication of the first Pooh Book, WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG as marking "an epoch as positively as any children's book has ever marked one. It is not extravagant to surmise that a distant posterity may find in that volume of children's verse a key with which to unlock the present more easily than with any contemporary novel, poem, or play" (quoted in Thwaite). The series is an evocative reflection of English childhood in the 1920s, yet transcends the time and place of its making for each new generation to discover - and fall for. As the first book in the series, WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG is the most difficult to find signed, making this an especially desirable set. 4 volumes, 7.5'' x 5'' each. Original blue, green, red and pink cloths. In original color… Read More

(New York): Harper, 1963. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition in first issue dustwrapper. Near fine with some light wear and toning to the outer edges of the boards in about very good dustwrapper with toning, sticker shadow on the front flap and moderate edgewear including small chips and tears. A relatively nice copy of one of most popular and influential children's book of the 20th Century. Hanrahan. *Works of Maurice Sendak 1947-1994* A58.

[London]: n.p.; [Stead's Publishing Company], 1911. Very good overall.. Original manuscripts and working drafts from a remarkable late-Victorian collaboration between two English women: a nearly-unknown writer of original children's fairy tales and a fanciful illustrator scarcely known outside her small local circle. Collected holograph manuscript notebooks and typescripts by Susan Robinson of Harrogate, Yorkshire: the majority were never published and they span two decades of creative productivity. The collection includes multiple revised drafts of some stories, accompanied by several original ink drawings credited to Sybil G. Petherick, a Suffolk artist and the illustrator of Robinson's one title definitively known to have been published (included here). Also included is a quantity of Robinson's sentimental and narrative verse, balanced by the exceedingly dry and self-aware "Tale of a would-be-Poet": "I never could be a Poet," remarks the narrator in an aside, "for only men can be that, women are… Read More

New York: The Viking Press, 1962. First Edition. First edition, first printing in correct dust jacket. Signed by Ezra Jack Keats, inscribed to book designer Jane Byers Bierhorst, "with whom its been pleasant working." They would collaborate on later books. 34 pp. Bound in publisher's blue cloth with white and red lettering. Near Fine with light wear, subtle mottling to cloth, in Very Good dust jacket, unclipped ($3.00) with absolutely no Caldecott award seal, chipped at head and tail, rubbed and worn along folds, a few short closed tears. Nice shape overall. A truly iconic work, The Snowy Day has been named on the most important books of the 20th century by the New York Public Library, inspired a series of U.S. postage stamps in 2017, and was the first children's book with a Black protagonist to win a major award. While first editions are quite rare and sought-after, signed or inscribed copies are almost unheard of.

[New York]: Harper & Row, 1963. Near fine in very good plus jacket.. Lovely first edition of the subversive Caldecott-award winner, in the rare original first-issue dust jacket. After illustrating nearly 50 other books, WILD THINGS was Sendak's first full-color picture book with his own text and illustrations. He took full advantage of that control to push the boundaries of the children's picture book genre. The story of a boy who gets in a fight with his mother and lets out his pent up feelings in a fantastical Wild Rumpus, WILD THINGS focused on the complex inner experience of little Max, acknowledging the reality that children deal with anger, frustration, and fear just as adults do. For this reason, the book was initially not well received: before the rise of New Realism in children's literature, many critics felt children's books ought to model ideal behavior rather than accurately reflect children's emotional experiences. The book made a splash from the very beginning, as Sendak expected it… Read More

New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1964. First edition. Hardback. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed. 9" by 7". Shel Silverstein. A lovely first impression copy of Shel Silverstein's important and influential children's novel, illustrated by Silverstein throughout, in an early impression dust wrapper. The first edition, first impression of this work, with the four line colophon to the copyright page. The dust wrapper is not the first issue dust wrapper, with the price $2.95 and not $2.50. Thus the dust wrapper is an early issue, possibly the second.In the original clipped dust wrapper, however the price is not clipped.'The Giving Tree' is a classic American children's fantasy picture book, following the relationship of an apple tree and a young boy who grows into adulthood.Though it was popular when published, this work also garnered a lot of controversy, with people debating whether the relationship between the boy and tree is positive or abusive. There are many different interpretations of the… Read More

New York: Random House. Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket. 1957. 1st Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. 0394800796 . Publisher's printed boards, illustrated endpapers. Illustrated with color drawings by Dr. Seuss. First edition, first printing, with all first issue points present: (1) Cat in the Hat advertisement on rear panel of dust jacket with a price of $2.00; (2) 14 titles (up to now) listed on the rear flap; (3) list of 13 books printed under Other Books by Dr. Seuss on the last page of the book; (4) Dust jacket code is "250/250." [Younger & Hirsch 33].. The volume is in excellent condition, showing only light shelf-wear at heel of spine, else fine; unmarked, tight, square, and clean. The unclipped dust jacket (now in Mylar) is mildly worn at the corners and at the head and heel of the spine, else fine. An extremely nice copy. NEAR FINE/VERY GOOD. . Color Drawings. 4to 11" - 13" tall. Unpaginated pp .

London: Jonathan Cape. 1982. First edition, first printing. First edition, first printing. Signed by Roald Dahl and also signed with a full page original drawing by Quentin Blake. Publisher's original grey cloth boards with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. An excellent near fine copy, the binding square and firm with a little bumping at the spine tips and corners, the cloth and gilt bright and fresh. The contents, with the unavoidable toning of the text block due to the quality of the paper, are otherwise clean throughout and without foxing or previous owner's marks. Complete with the very near fine lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper which has a touch of fading to the spine. Not price-clipped (£6.50 net to the lower front flap). Housed in a bespoke quarter black morocco solander case with titles in gilt to the spine. Inscribed by the author in blue ink on the front endpaper "To William / with love / Roald Dahl", overleaf on the half title the illustrator has… Read More

1943. First Edition . Signed. DAHL, Roald. The Gremlins. A Royal Air Force Story by Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl. New York: Random House, (1943). Slim quarto, original half red cloth, pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in custom pictorial clamshell box. $13,500.Presentation first edition of Dahl's rare first book, with 14 vibrant full-page illustrations by Walt Disney Productions, twice inscribed by him: on the half title, ""To Joe and Steve with love from Roald Dahl 10/5/47,"" and opposite the half title, ""One by one a cow came by/ Howling around for the moon/ They asked me where the hell it was/ I said it's gone you dopes—you're much too soon. R."" An exceptionally elusive and desirable Dahl first edition in any condition, particularly in the original dust jacket and inscribed by him.Dahl was sent to Washington in 1942 as an assistant air attaché for the British Embassy. After having a story published… Read More