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Fairy Tales
A - E
Ajapa the Tortoise: A Book of Nigerian Fairy Tales
Margaret I. Baumann, G.R. Day (illus)
A & C Black, Ltd
London, 1929
1st thus
Collection of folk and fairy tales of the people of West Africa with a focus on Ajapa as the natives of Nigeria call the Tortoise. Octavo. Blue cloth covered boards with a little bend, pictorial spine and cover, titles to spine and cover. Original pictorial DJ with some chipping at head and to corners. Inscribed "Francesca Claremont," no date. Overall very good.
Albanian Wonder Tales
Post Wheeler, Maud and Miska Petersham (illust.)
Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.
Garden City NY, 1936
1st edition
Blue cloth covered boards with titles in black to front and spine. Illustration of a horse trapped in thorned branches to front. Blue and white pictorial endpapers. Signed by Post Wheeler on half title. Untrimmed side edges. Slight bumping to corners, head, and tail. A very good copy.
Alice in Tumblr-land and Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation
Tim Manley
Penguin Books
New York, 2013
1st edition, 1st printing
Octavo, hardcover, black and white illustrations throughout. Fine w/ fine DJ.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel (illust)
Macmillan and Co.
London, 1877
1st edition, 55 thousandth printing
Octavo, original red cloth lettered and stamped in gilt. All edges gilt. Illustrated throughout by John Tenniel. A very good copy, cloth a little dusty.
All the Murmuring Bones
A.G. Slatter
Titan Books
London, 2021
1st edition, 2nd printing
Paperback octavo. Pictorial wrappers, fine.
The Allies' Fairy Book
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Introduction by Edmond Gosse
William Heinemann
London, 1916
Edition de Luxe
Edition de Luxe limited to 525 numbered copies signed by the artist, this being one of three over-copies. Quarto, twelve color plates mounted on heavy brown paper, with descriptive tissue guards printed in red, and 24 drawings in black and white. Publisher’s blue buckram, front cover and spine pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt, decorative endpapers, top edges gilt. Corners slightly bumped, covers a little soiled, else fine.
American Fairy Tales: From Rip Van Winkle to the Rootabaga Stories
Neil Philip (editor), Michael McCurdy (illust)
Hyperion Books for Children
New York, 1996
Quarto; red cloth-covered boards, spine lettered in gilt. Fine in fine pictorial DJ.
American Indian Fairy Tales
Margaret Compton
Dodd, Mead & Company
New York, 1925
Octavo. Color frontispiece illustration and cover design by E.A. Poucher. Minor rubbing to head and tail of spine. Minor pencil marginalia, pencil gift inscription inside front cover from Christmas 1926 “To Marjorie from Virginia.” Overall very good. A collection of fairy tales first published in 1895. Per the author’s note, the 17 stories included here were largely drawn from government reports of “Indian life” taken from the Smithsonian Institute, as well as folklore in the standard works of Schoolcraft, Copway, and Catlin. Henry Schoolcraft was an ethnologist who married a mixed-race Ojibwe woman, who taught him the language. George Copway was a Mississaugas Ojibwa author and historian. George Catlin was an American artist, lawyer, explorer, and author who specialized in portraits of Native Americans.
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen, Arthur Szyk, Mrs. E.V. Lucas & Mrs. H.B. Paul
Grosset & Dunlap
New York, 1945
1st edition
First edition thus, publisher’s purple cloth with color plate on cover, pictorial endpapers illustrated by Arthur Szyk. Frontispiece, black & white, and color illustrations throughout. Cloth a little dusty with fading to spine, otherwise a very good copy.
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen, Mrs. E.V. Lucas and Mrs. H.B. Paul (transl), Arthur Szyk (illust)
Grosset & Dunlap
New York, 2002
1st thus
Folio. Glossy pictorial boards with Szyk illustrations. Title to front cover and spine in gilt. Reissue of 1945 edition that paired with Grimm. Unclipped price tag on mylar. Illustrated Junior Library edition.
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen, Mrs. H.B. Paull (transl)
Frederick Warne & Co.
circa 1890
Green hardcover with elaborate gilt cover and spine. Embossed back cover. Illustrated with full color plates and black and white illustrations. Minor rubbing to head and tail. Faintest sight of webbing inside front cover but otherwise binding is sound and hinge not yet cracked.
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story
George Orwell
Secker & Warburg
London, 1945
1st edition, 2nd printing
A fine book with green boards that are clean and un-faded. The inner pages are clean, with no foxing present, free of any previous owner names or Inscriptions. The price clipped dust wrapper is a very nice example indeed. There is very small chip to the spine tip, but is free of any other loss. Light soiling to the rear panel, but a surprisingly well preserved example.
The Annotated African American Folktales
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar (ed., foreword, intro, notes)
Liveright
New York, 2015
1st edition, 1st printing
Thick quarto. Blue paper covered boards with design and border in gilt on front board and spine lettered in gilt. Pictorial DJ with titles and border in gilt, small scratch to front through title. Signed by the two editors on the title page. Fine, with a VG DJ.
The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights
Yasmine Seale (transl), Paulo Lemos Horta (ed, intro, notes), Omar El Akkad (foreword), Robert Irwin (afterword)
Liveright
New York, 2021
1st edition, 1st printing
Thick quarto. Black paper covered boards, titles in gilt to front board and spine. Pictorial DJ. Fine.
The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales
Maria Tatar (ed.)
W.W. Norton
New York, 2002
1st edition, 1st printing
Quarto. Orange paper covered boards, with Hansel and Gretel line drawing stamped to front board in hot pink gilt. Border in same pink gilt, spine lettered in gilt. Original pictorial DJ. Both fine.
The Arabian Nights' Entertainment
Unknown
Ward, Locke & Co., Ltd
London, circa 1908
Octavo. Green cloth-covered boards, illustration of Ali Baba holding gilt lamp and gilt decoration to hair, jewelry, knife, and clothes on front board. Title to spine in gilt with man's head emerging from brown vase. 8 full-color illustrated plates. Overall very good. No author named.
The Armless Maiden and Other Fairy Tales for Childhood's Survivors
edited by Terri Windling
Tor: Tom Doherty Associates Book
New York, 1995
1st edition, 1st printing
Octavo. Yellow paperback with pictorial cover and titles to spine. Some bumping to corners, otherwise fine. Includes original material as well as reprinted material previously published.
The Ash Girl
Timberlake Wertenbaker
Dramatic Publishing
Woodstock IL, 2003
Slim octavo. Paperback. Pictorial cover. Fine. Play in two acts that's a retelling of Cinderella.
Baum's American Fairy Tales
L. Frank Baum, George Kerr (illust)
Bobbs Merrill
Indianapolis, 1908
1st thus
Small quarto, original blue cloth boards, pictorial paste-on cover plate slightly soiled, else fine and bright. Expanded edition with additional illustrations.
The Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden
Del Rey
New York, 2017
1st edition, 1st printing
Black and blue paper covered boards, title to spine in gilt. Fine with very good original pictorial DJ.
Beauty and the Beast
LePrince de Beaumont, Marie, Richard Howard (transl), Hilary Knight (illust)
Simon and Schuster
New York, 1990
1st edition, 1st printing
First edition, first printing. Afterword by Jean Cocteau. Slim quarto. Green cloth over glossy pictorial boards. Color illustrated endpapers, color illustrations throughout by Hilary Knight, who is best known for his wonderful illustrations for the Eloise books. Very fine copy in pictorial wraparound dust jacket.
Beauty and the Beast
Marie LePrince de Beaumont
The Green Tiger Press
San Diego, 1989
1st edition, 2nd printing
Slim folio. Original pictorial DJ matching pictorial board. Illustrated throughout with classic works from the Golden Age of Illustration, all chosen and arranged by Cooper Edens. Fine.
The Black Princess and Other Fairy Tales from Brazil
Christie T. Young (transl.), Florence Mary Harrison (illust.)
The Sheldon Press
London, 1929
Reissue
Originally published 1916. Quarto, blue cloth covered boards, titles to front and spine. Some bumps and fading to spine but otherwise very good, internally clean with beautiful color illustrations. Missing the DJ.
Blanche Neige
Warja Lavater (book arts)
Adrien Maeght
Paris, 1974
1st edition
Paris: Adrien Maeght Editeur, 1974. 15.8x11.1cm: [43] color illustrated panels, printed rectos only, including two panels for the legend. Printed on a single sheet of cream colored stock paper (about 4 meters long) folded accordion-style and affixed to green cloth boards. Paper titling pasted to the front board. Near Fine. Snow White is part of a six-book series called Imageries by Warja Lavater, a Swiss artist known for her accordion-style books. All six of the books are based on fairy tales and were published by Paris-based publisher Adrien Maeght for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. All the books in the series are wordless and are told only through the use of colorful symbols. Lavater did not consider herself an artist but rather a Bildstellerin, or “picture writer”. As Carol Ribi points out in 100 years of Swiss design, “Warja Lavater’s symbol notations and artist’s books are situated on the boundaries of graphic design, painting, literature, and object art, and there mark a transition of genres that has yet to be thoroughly explored in picture or art theory.” Her work, including Snow White specifically, has been used educationally to help children explore artistic expression and even to teach literacy through pictures.
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Angela Carter
Victor Gollancz
London, 1979
1st edition, 1st printing
Slim octavo, original black paper boards, fine original dust jacket. Fine.
Blue Beard
Pamela Colman Smith (illust), Charles Perrault (based on...)
Duffield & Company
New York, 1913
Buff illustrated paper boards with black cloth spine features cover illustration of floating head with beard in wonderful condition. Wildly scarce, particularly as seeen here with dust jacket intact, showing signs of wear. Ownership inscription "Donald Onslow Seve[n]y August 14 1920 His Own Book from Aunt Millie." Text is based on Charles Perrault's version of the story, marketed as a juvenile book on publication. Only three copies on WorldCat, none on Copac. Little is known about production of this book.
Bluebeard's Keys and Other Stories
Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie (aka Miss Thackeray)
Smith, Elder and Co.
London, 1874
1st edition
Octavo. 412pp, plus two pages of ads for books by Thackeray Ritchie. Rather heavy wear to binding, with spine rebacked, scattered rubbing, hard bumping to split and fraying corners, and hard lean to spine. Calling card of Flora M. Smith to front pastedown. Ticket to rear pastedown. Black and white photographic picture of keys pasted to verso of half-title, fashioning a vernacular frontispiece of a sort. Binding is firm and sound. Occasional light foxing, smudge, or spot of dust soiling to pages throughout. Good. Hardcover. A captivating and feminist retelling of the bloody old French folktale "Bluebeard," an apt opening to this collection of subversive fairy tales by Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie (1837-1919), essayist, novelist, biographer, and eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray. These novella-length stories reimagine four classic fairy tales, each of which the author sets in Victorian-era England and uses to explore the social, political, and gender issues of her time: Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and "Riquet à la Houppe," the Great British folktale "Jack and the Beanstalk," and Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy's "The White Cat," each preceded by a brief "Argument" in verse recounting the traditional narrative, which Thackeray Ritchie's retellings rebut, diverge, and subvert as they form her counter-argument. These of-and ahead-of-their-time fairy tales remain powerful. Scholars like Shuli Barzalai have speculated that the title story in Bluebeard's Keys prefigured or even "predetermined" the title story in Angela Carter's collection of fairy tale retellings published a century later, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; the two have much in common. This is an admittedly worn but solid and complete first edition, in the original cloth with its gilt-stamped ring of keys and scene of discovery, of this collection of fairy tale retellings by an important woman writer in the long tradition of literary fairy tales.
A Body More Tolerable: Poems
Jaye Simpson
Arsenal Pulp Press
April, 2025
1st edition
Octavo, paperback in fine condition. A collection of powerful and haunting poems combining faerie tales, mythology, and a self-divinized female rage. Divided into three parts, the book examines Indigenous grief, trans identity, and frustrated desires in ways that reject perception.
The Book of Gothel
Mary McMyne
Redhook
New York, 2022
Limited edition
Quarto. Special hardback edition released by Fox & Wit, including additional protective, pictorial DJ, two bookmarks, a recipe card for a meal from the book, and a card with a QR code to a special podcast. Signed and dated bookplate on the half-title. Green and black paper covered boards. Titles in gilt to spine. Fine with two fine DJs.
The Boy Who Didn't Come Home
Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books
New York, 2019
Limited edition
Small format chapbook printed as a limited edition promotional item given out in sweepstakes to promote the publication of THE NIGHT COUNTRY, the sequel to THE HAZEL WOOD.
Briar Rose
Jane Yolen
Tor Books
New York, 1992
1st edition, 1st printing
A retelling of Sleeping Beauty, set during the Holocaust. Octavo, burgundy cloth covered boards, title in gilt to spine. Pictorial DJ, both fine. Signed by the author on a sticker to the title page. Part of the Tor Fantasy "Fairy Tale Series" created by Terri Windling.
Brundibar
Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak
Hyperion Books for Chidren
New York, 2003
1st edition
Based on a Czech opera that was performed 55 times by children in Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp. Signed by Kushner and Sendak on the half-title. Oblong quarto. Original brown cloth binding, with black and gilt stamping and pictorial endpapers. A fine copy in a fine DJ.
The Cabbage Princess
Errol Le Cain
Faber and Faber
London, 1969
1st edition
Single volume measuring 9.75 x 8.25 inches. Original color pictorial boards, color pictorial endpapers, original clipped color pictorial jacket. Color illustrations throughout text. Signed by Errol Le Cain on half-title. photocopied flyer for a 1975 bookstore appearance by Le Cain laid in. First edition of this cautionary fairy tale, signed by Kate Greenaway medalist Errol Le Cain. he Lord of the Forest punishes a bad-tempered king by transforming the members of the royal court into the epithets the king hurls at them: "From now on every bitter word you say will come true." Le Cain's surreal illustrations, painterly and full of detail, fulfill his ambition to give his young readers "fresh things at every look." Laid into this copy is a promotional flyer for Le Cain's 1975 visit to Goblins Bookshop in Staplehurst, Kent, likely the occasion on which this copy was signed. A near-fine example of a delightful book.
Cathleen Ni Hoolihan: A Play in One Act
W.B. Yeats
A.H. Bullen
London, 1902
1st edition
One of 300 copies printed. Duodecimo, original quarter roan over cream paper covered boards, title printed on upper board, signed and dated by Yeats on a bookplate adhered to front pastedown; minor soiling, spine weak with some loss to roan. In custom blue and cream linen over board clamshell case. Lady Gregory, though not credited at the time, was a significant contributor.
Celtic Tales: Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales
Kate Forrester (illust)
Chronicle Books
San Francisco, 2016
1st edition
Pictorial boards and endpapers. Fine.
The Celtic Twilight
W.B. Yeats
A.H. Bullen
London, 1902
Revised and enlarged edition
Octavo, original blue cloth boards, upper board lettered in gilt with gilt moon device, spine gilt lettered with elaborate Celtic motif in gilt after that of The Secret Rose. Slight rubbing to extremities, else about fine.
Celtic Wonder Tales
Ella Young, Maud Gonne (illus)
Maunsel & Company, Ltd.
Dublin, 1910
1st edition, 1st printing
Octavo. Finely bound in mid-century green morocco, titles in gilt to spine and front board, decorative shamrock motifs in gilt to spine and vertical gilt ruling to boards, green patterned endpapers. Housed in custom green paper-covered plush-lined slipcase. 4 tipped-in color plates, all bt one heightened in gilt and silver, head- and tail-pieces, a few decorative opening initials all by Maud Gonne. Spine uniformly sunned, two small marks to front board, the binding firm and bright, occasional and marginal light finger-soiling, otherwise internally untoned. A very good copy. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the original front free endpaper "To John Varian, With Greeting from Ella Young," and with over ten annotations in ink by Young. John Osborne Vairan (1863-1931) was an Irish-American poet and a leader within the theosophist utopian community of Halcyon, CA, where Ella Young made her final home in a cabin behind the Varian's home in 1928 while she was finishing her book, The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales, and working on her poetry. The annotations, apparently establishing links between the printed text (Irish lore) and spiritual principles, could have been penned by Young as she revisited her previous work frm a new angle, or added as explanations for Varian, to bridge the gap between both of their specialties. Loosely inserted is a piece of paper with further annotations pencilled in another hand. Edith Maud Gonne (1866-1953) was one of the boldest figures of the Irish Literary Revival; a suffragette and artist, she remains best known as W.B. Yeats's muse and the sbject of over 80 of his poems. They were "possibly briefly engaged, and in November 1891 she joined the Order of the Golden Dawn, the magical order to which he belonged, as 'per Ignem ad Lucem' (Through Fire to the Light)" (ODNB). Gonne was also an Irish nationalist whose political commitment was deemed "paradoxical: born in England of English parents she was Irish by passionate identification and remote descent" (ibid.). She became close friends with the author of these Celtic Wonder Tales, the Irish-born mystic, poet, and mythographer, Ella Young (1867-1956), who spent terms of imprisonment for her Republican sympathies. Young left Ireland in 1925, disillusioned by the Civil War, and moved to America where she lectured on mythology and Irish literature for many years.
Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella
Robert D. San Souci; Brian Pinkney (illust)
Simon & Schuster's Books for Young Readers
New York, 1998
1st edition, 1st printing
Slim quarto. Purple paper-covered boards with blue cloth to spine, a little sunned at tail. Title in gilt to spine. Original pictorial DJ. Leaf green endpapers. Very Good hardcover with Very Good, unclipped dust jacket. First edition, first printing. Lengthily inscribed by both author and illustrator at FFEP, with an original sketch by the illustrator. Illustrations throughout.
Charles Godfrey Leland and His Magical Tales
Jack Zipes (editor)
Wayne State University Press
Detroit, 2020
1st edition
Paperback with illustration to cover inspired by a photograph of Charles Godrey Leland. Contains Algonquin, Florentine, and Romani tales, as well as the unpublished legends of Virgil. Fine.
Children of Chicago
Cynthia Pelayo
Agora Books
Aberdeen NJ, 2021
1st edition
Octavo. Light blue paper covered boards with titles in gilt to spine. Origial pictorial DJ. Fine. A modern day retelling of the Pied Piper story.
Chinese Fairy Tales
Jeanyee Wong (illust)
Peter Pauper Press
Mount Vernon, 1961
2nd edition
Slim octavo. Pictorial front board with matching original DJ. Illustrations in red, black, and gold throughout. Price clipped DJ. Fine.
Chlorine
Jade Song
William Morrow
New York, 2023
1st edition, 1st printing
First edition, first printing. Navy blue paper colored boards with titles to spine and publisher's logo embossed on front. Fine in a near fine DJ.
Cinder
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel and Friends
New York, 2012
1st edition
Inscribed on the title “To Sarah - Once upon a future…”. Octavo, black boards, spine lettered in red gilt. Fine in a fine pictorial DJ.
Cinderella
Walt Disney, Retta Scott Worcester and Jane Werner (adapted by)
Simon and Schuster
New York, 1950
1st edition, 1st printing
Folio, first edition, first printing. Original laminated color pictorial boards, titles in black and white to spine and front board, boards heightened in gilt, color pictorial endpapers heightened in gilt, orange paper pop-up pumpkin to front endpapers. Walt Disney Studio color illustrations throughout adapted by Retta Scott Worcester. Spine ends a little rubbed, laminate just starting to lift, else a fine copy. A lavishly illustrated copy with gilt worked into all of the illustrations. Retta Scott Worcester was the first woman animator of Walt Disney to get screen credit; she was one of few who rose to the top in the male dominated industry.
Cinderella
Arthur Rackham (illust), C.S. Evans (retold by)
William Heinemann
London, 1919
Edition de Luxe
Limited to 325 copies printed on Japanese Vellum, out of a total of 850 copies numbered and signed by the illustrator, of which this is #233. Large quarto, 110 pages. Mounted color frontispiece with color pictorial border and tissue guard. Three double-page silhouette drawings with color, one single-page silhouette drawing with color (not included in the trade edition), thirteen single-page silhouette drawings without color, and thirty-six silhouette drawings in the text. Title with color pictorial border. Publishers quarter vellum over white parchment boards ruled in gilt, front cover and spine pictorially stamped in gilt, green pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt. A superb example with the plates and text totally free from the offsetting that usually affects this title. "Rackham gave his talk on Silhouettes to the Art Workers' Guild in November 1919, the month in which Cinderella, the first of his two great silhouette books, was published. Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty differed from Rackhams' preceding books in relying almost wholly for their effect on silhouette. It is immediately clear that Rackham is a master of the medium, being able to evoke character and humor by profile and gesture alone, and allowing the two-dimensional effect of his pen work to lead the reader through the book adn keep the story going. Silhouette books, even with additional colors had lower production costs than their color plate equivalents, an so were an attractive option both for publishers and customers in the uncertain post-war market." (James Hamilton. Arthur Rackham, A Biography, p. 188).
Cinderella Is Dead
Kalynn Bayron
Bloomsbury
New York, 2020
1st edition, 1st printing
Octavo, first edition, first printing. Signed by author on bookplate affixed to front free endpaper. Purple paper-covered boards, title to spine in silver gilt. Original pictorial DJ with a small tear to top front, otherwise very good. Overall fine. A young adult novel that imagines a world in which Cinderella was a real person whose story has been manipulated to serve the patriarchal kingdom in which she lived, 200 years after her death. The protagonist is a Black, lesbian teenager who meets the last descendant of Cinderella and her stepsisters and goes on a journey to find the fairy godmother and bring down their corrupt, evil king.
Cinderella Pantomime Book
McLoughlin Bros.
New York, 1891
Lithographed gatefold children’s book. The front of each, when the book is closed, represents the proscenium arch of a theatre, with curtain, footlights, and the orchestra as if in the act of playing an overture. Cover and the different pages are divided down the center, and as they are lifted one after the other, fold back to each side, disclosing the stage, and, upon it, a series of tableaux representing scenes in the story, which is told in verses. Soft cover; some creasing to covers, chipping to the top of the front gate folds and one triangular chip missing from back cover and bottom corner of final left page. Head of right hinge starting. Repaired tear to left hand side pastedown, pencilled notations to same pastedown. Part of the Royal quarto book series by McLoughlin Bros.
Cinderella Puppet Show
The Walt Disney Studio, Retta Worcester (adapted by)
Simon and Schuster
New York, 1949
1st edition
An interactive puppet show book based on Walt Disney's Cinderella, comes complete with paper dolls of all the characters. The story is written like a script, for children to read out loud and position the puppets in little open slots on each illustration. All illustrations are done like stage designs, with the animation backgrounds, designed after the art of Mary Blair. Front board open in the center to show the illustrated title page, designed to be like a proscenium stage, with Donald, Pluto, Mickey, and Pinocchio as audience members along the bottom. Some light nicks and teacing to top and bottom of boards, internally clean and bright, puppets still in plastic. Overall VG. Number #41 on spine, possible the 41st "Golden Toy Book."
Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling and Other Feminist Fairy Tales: A Parody
Laura Lane and Ellen Haun
Seal Press
New York, 2020
1st edition, 1st printing
Small quarto, pictorial boards, full page illustrations throughout by Nicole Miles. Fine.
Cinderella and the Magic Wand
Walt Disney Productions
Whitman Publishing Co.
Racine, 1950
Duodecimo. Walt Disney's Cinderella, likely published alongside the film as it was published in the same year of the film's release. A New Better Little Book. Pictorial boards. Illustrated throughout in black, white, and green. Owner's name to inside cover, "Judy." Very good.
Cinderella and the Two Gifts
Charles Perrault, Edouard Beaumont (illust)
Boussod Valadon & Co.
Paris, 1886
1st thus, possibly a limited edition
Probably a limited edition but not specified, this charmingly illustrated version was originally published loose leafed and later tabbed into the bespoke binding to allow the leaves to lie flat when open. Bookplate to upper paste-down of Annie Cowdray (died 1932), wife of Wetman Peason, 1st Viscount Cowdray; showing Dunecht House, Aberdeenshire, leased by Lord Cowdray in 1907 and then purchased by him in 1912. 1st edition thus, folio, 34 unpaginated sheets containing 33 illustrations and vignettes by Edouard Beaumont, most in colour, a very few, random spots, mostly to uncut fore-edge with little affect to pages, later binding of full navy blue morocco by Riviere & Son, the upper cover onlaid with a champagne saucer, roses, butterflies and a bugle bearing a symbolic pennant with a heeled shoe and a crown, top edge gilt others untrimmed, slight bumping to corners, otherwise a unique binding of a rare edition.
Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, A Grand Allegorical Pantomimic Spectacle, as performed at the Philadelphia Theatre
Charles Perrault, Michael Kelly
D. Longworth, at the Dramatic Repository, Shakespeare-Gallery
New York, 1807
1st edition
First New York edition of this stage adaptation. Unbound pamphlet, Sextodecimo, 12 pages, stitched. Somewhat toned and dusty, edges a bit chipped and worn, but in good, sound condition. The drama opens with a scene among the gods on Mount Ida - hence the "grand allegorical" scope of this pantomime adaptation of Cinderella, attributed to Michael Kelly. Includes the dramatis personae. American Imprints 13360; Rosenbach 348 (this edition); Stoddard, Catalogue of the dramatic imprints of David and Thomas Longworth, 1802-1821, 84: "Includes the songs and dialogue."
The Cloak of Dreams: Chinese Fairy Tales
Béla Balázs, Jack Zipes (transl)
Princeton University Press
Princeton, 2010
1st edition, 1st printing
Paperback octavo, fine.
The Complete First Edition of the Original Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm, Jack Zipes (transl.), Andrea Dezsö (illust.)
Princeton University Press
Princeton, 2016
1st edition
Octavo. White paper covered boards, titles in gilt to spine. Pictorial DJ.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Gregory Maguire
Reagan Books
New York, 1999
1st edition
Octavo, original illustrated boards, illustrated throughout. Signed by the author on the half-title w/ a line from this novel as follows: “'For they blur as they run; they blur as they grow and change so fast; and they blur to keep us from loving them too deeply, for their protection, and also for ours.’ Gregory Maguire April 2007.” Fine in a fine DJ.
Cruikshank's Fairy Library
George Cruikshank
David Bogue
London, 1853-1854
1st editions
Lovely set of first editions, in the original wrappers. 4 volumes, small quarto. Original blue printed wrappers, titles and pictorial designs printed in black to front wrappers. Housed in custom late 19th/early 20th century red morocco case with titles in gilt to spine. Each volume with etched frontispiece and 5 similar plates by Cruikshank, publisher's advertisements to rear wrappers. Extremities somewhat darkened and rubbed. Hop-O'My-Thumb with two out of three points: with the rear wrapper reading "Preparing for Publication" and the rear FEP pasted to rear wrapper. History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk with two of the five points: the "Jack climbing the Bean-Stalk" frontispiece, and the plates on white paper; endpapers renewed. Cinderella and the Glass Slipper with two of the three points: the plate list after the printed title, and the rear wrapper with "I. Hop o' My Thumb... II. Jack and the Beanstalk." Puss in Boots with two of the four points: no FFL, no plate list, with some wear and chipping to spine, edges a little creased. Remarkably well-preserved and without ownership marks. Very good set. Although Cruikshank's illustrations for the first English translation of Grimm's Fairy Tales received a great deal of praise, this foray into the world of children's fantasy proved less successful. Many, including Charles Dickens, criticised the artist for the Temperance-inspired slant he put on these traditional stories. In Cinderella, for instance, the court prepares for the ball by setting fire to its entire reserve of alcohol. It was alterations like this that prompted Dickens to write and publish a satirical attack on Cruikshank entitled "Frauds on the Fairies," in Household Words magazine in 1853. Cruikshank's fine woodcut illustrations failed to gain him support and Dickens's view prevailed, crushing one of Cruikshank's last hopes for public acclaim.
Damsel
Evelyn Skye, based on a screenplay by Dan Mazeau
Random House Worlds
New York, 2023
1st edition, 1st printing
First edition, first printing. A novelization of the 2024 Netflix film of the same name starring Millie Bobby Brown. Black and red paper covered boards with titles in gilt to spine. Some bumping to head, else fine in a near fine DJ.
D'Aulnoy's Fairy Tales
Madame D'Aulnoy, Gustaf Tenggren (illust)
David McKay Company
Philadelphia, 1923
1st edition
Quarto, eight full-page color plates, numerous black and white drawings in the text. Publishers blue cloth, front cover with pasted-on illustration, spine lettered in black, top edge gilt, color pictorial endpapers. A fine copy in the original color pictorial DJ with a few small marginal tears.
Drei Märchen: Zum Besten der Kriegsgefangenen im Lager Bando in Schlablonen-Druck Gedruckt und Gebunden (Three Fairy Tales: Printed Using Wax-Stencils for the Benefit of Prisoners of War at Camp Bando)
E. Behr, Gustav Möller (illust.)
Lagerdruckerei
Bandō, Japan, 1918
Small quarto (26 × 19 cm). Original lithographed cloth; 79 pp. of mimeographed hand-written text to rectos and versos; [8] leaves of chromolithograph illustrations througout, as well as an additional 3 color initials and 5 vignettes; lithographed endpapers. Light overall wear; cloth somewhat rubbed; still about very good. Rare children's book printed by inmates of the POW camp for German soldiers at Bando, Japan. The present is the second edition, stated to have been a run of 1100 copies ("5. bis 16. Hundert"), although the first edition (printed in 1917) is not known to be held by any institutions. The Bandō camp was created in April 1917 to house nearly one thousand German and Austro-Hungarian troops, who had been arrested following the successful occupation of Tsingtao, previously under German administration. One of twelve such camps, Bandō was known for its relatively liberal rules and a lack of physical abuse, as well as the opportunities for engaging in athletics, trade and industry. Both due to the lax governance and the presence of many highly skilled professionals among the prisoners, the camp resembled a small town where many goods and services were available, as well as opportunities for further professional training and education. The camp also boasted its own lithographic printer as well as the camp printing shop that utilized mimeography to print ephemera for daily use, technical drawings, books, including children's books, as well as news bulletins and a camp journal (Die Baracke). The camp was closed in December 1919 and most of the inmates returned to Germany, though some remained in the region, where they had been able to establish close ties even during the camps' existence. A fascinating relic of this unique prisoner camp culture in the Far East. As of June 2021, KVK and OCLC show only one copy in North America.
Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Béla Balázs, Susan Adams (illust.), Béla Bartók and John Lloyd Davies (opera)
Old Stile Press
UK, 2006
Limited edition
Folio, number 59 of 150 copies numbered and signed by Davies and Adams. The story of Bluebeard has a long history, from Perrault's Fairy Tales through Maeterlinck, and is deeply embedded in the dark storytelling of the early 20h century. Béla Balázs, heavily influenced by the French Symbolists, wrote a play which inspired his fellow countryman Béla Bartók to create a truly Hungarian opera. The music and the libretto in their turn have drawn from Susan Adams a sequence of stunning images. Each page evokes the unfolding terror that the walls of Duke Bluebeard's castle have witnessed. The chilling story is of the young bride, Judith, brought to her new home by the Duke. She longs to fling open windows, to let sunlight flood into her castle but gradually she has to face the truth of what may have happened here - the truth of the destroyed lives of three previous wives. The libretto is the English version made by John Lloyd Davies for performances of the opera in the UK. Printed in Eric Gill's Joanna type on BFK Rives paper. The 18 images by Adams use two printmaking techniques, printing directly from woodblocks in black (with two in white) and digitally generated photopolymer line blocks, printed in red. The small folio book is bound in black and red paper and covered with red paper printed with woodcuts on both covers. The slipcase has grey sides with a black border, again printed with images by Susan Adams. A particularly striking production from this excellent private press. Fine, unpaginated (56 pages).
East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North
Kay Nielsen (illust.), Peter Christen Ashjørnsen
Hodder & Stoughton
London, 1914
1st edition
Large quarto. Blue cloth with gilt lettering and design. Pictorial endpapers with striking black and white design. 25 color plates mounted under captioned tissue guards. There are also many line drawings and chapter heading designs. A very good copy indeed, mainly very bright, with slight rubs to corners and some light foxing towards the end of the book. All plates perfect and bright. This work is Nielsen's most highly acclaimed, illustrating the fairy tales of his native Scacndinavia.
Edmund Dulac's Picture Book for the Red Cross
Edmund Dulac (illust.)
Hodder & Stoughton, published for the Daily Telegraph
London, 1915
Quarto with 19 captioned, mounted color plates by Dulac, spotting to preliminary and terminal text pages, otherwise very good. publisher's pictorial taupe cloth, near fine, offsetting to endpapers, spotting to edges of text block but not affecting margins other than those few mentioned above. Pictorial dust-jacket, minor soiling, darkening to spine nd bumping to head but remarkably good with no tears or restoration. Rare to find in DJ since it was usuall discarded because it has the price listed twice on the front.
El Princhipiko
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Edition Tintenfak
Heidelberg, 2018
2nd edition
2nd edition of The Little Prince, published in Ladino, an amalgam of Spanish and Hebrew. Paperback, illustrated throughout. Fine.
The Enchanted Land
Louey Chisholm; Katharine Cameron (illust.)
G.P. Putnam's Sons and T.C. & E.C. Jack
New York and London, 1906
1st edition
First edition of this beautiful Glasgow School storybook, illustrated by one of the leading artists of the Glasgow Girls. Original green cloth gilt pictorial bindig designed by Katharine Cameron. Gold endpapers, all edges gilt. Color illustrated frontispiece with 29 full-page color plates. Binding with a touch of edgewear, spine ends bumped, small spot of soil to front board. Leaves with occasional small sports of foxing. Plates bright, overall very good plus. Katharine Cameron, an alumna of the Glasgow School of Art, was closely associated with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle of Art Nouveau boundary-pushers. Working in the Glasgow Style that fused Celtic Revival, Japonisme, the Arts and Crafts Aesthetic, and the aforementioned Art Nouveau, Cmaeron exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1894, although the Academy would not admit any woman full members until 1936.
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