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Fairy Tales

V - Z

12 pg folio. Chromolithographed edition of the Russian fairy-tale designed by artist Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942). He immensely influenced book art as a creator of this unique style, inspired by folklore and the architecture of the Russian North. This is the best-known tale of Baba Yaga with her sorcery and servants, and is sometimes called a Russian variant of Cinderella, though it is officially classified as a variant of The Kind and Unkind Girls. The book was published in one of the finest pre-revolutionary print shops. Very good.

Vasilisa Prekrasnaia (Vasilisa the Beautiful)

Ivan Bilibin (illust)., likely from Alexander Afanasyev
Ekspeditsiia Zagotovleniia Gosudarstvennykh Bumag
St. Petersburg, 1902
1st thus
12 pg folio. Chromolithographed edition of the Russian fairy-tale designed by artist Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942). He immensely influenced book art as a creator of this unique style, inspired by folklore and the architecture of the Russian North.
This is the best-known tale of Baba Yaga with her sorcery and servants, and is sometimes called a Russian variant of Cinderella, though it is officially classified as a variant of The Kind and Unkind Girls. The book was published in one of the finest pre-revolutionary print shops. Very good.
Small quarto, contemporary red quarter roan, drab boards, title in white gouache to front cover, neat manuscript in English on 11 pieces of card, on rectos only, yellow string ties attaching book block to binding. Illustrated by hand in ink and white gouache. A little rubbed, spine torn at head, some light marginal browning. An apparently unpublished story, prettily handwritten and illustrated by a mother to her young daughter during the First World War, with calligraphic gift inscription on the first page: “To Eileen, Christmas 1917, from Mother.”

The Veiled Fairy

A Mother (manuscript)
Homemade and unpublished
Possibly Scotland, Christmas 1917
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Small quarto, contemporary red quarter roan, drab boards, title in white gouache to front cover, neat manuscript in English on 11 pieces of card, on rectos only, yellow string ties attaching book block to binding. Illustrated by hand in ink and white gouache. A little rubbed, spine torn at head, some light marginal browning. An apparently unpublished story, prettily handwritten and illustrated by a mother to her young daughter during the First World War, with calligraphic gift inscription on the first page: “To Eileen, Christmas 1917, from Mother.”
Octavo. Blue paper covered boards, titles in gilt to spine. Original pictorial DJ. Fine.

The Way Back

Gavriel Savit
Knopf
New York, 2020
1st edition
Octavo. Blue paper covered boards, titles in gilt to spine. Original pictorial DJ. Fine.
Octavo. A novel about werewolves. Pictorial DJ, navy paper covered boards, titles to spine. Fine.

What Big Teeth

Rose Szabo
Farrar Straus & Giroux
New York, 2021
1st edition, 1st printing
Octavo. A novel about werewolves. Pictorial DJ, navy paper covered boards, titles to spine. Fine.
Slim octavo. Pictorial paperback, fine. Inscribed by the author and poet Joe Pan on the half title. Published by a small press dedicated to publishing stories by women.

Wild Milk: Stories

Sabrina Orah Mark
Dorothy, A Publishing Project
St. Louis, 2018
First edition
Slim octavo. Pictorial paperback, fine. Inscribed by the author and poet Joe Pan on the half title. Published by a small press dedicated to publishing stories by women.
Signed first edition, first printing, specially bound by publisher. Octavo. Pictorial boards with swan woman flying over city at night. Publisher's fine pictorial DJ with cut out in center to show board.

A Wild Winter Swan

Gregory Maguire
William Morrow
New York, 2020
1st edition, 1st printing
Signed first edition, first printing, specially bound by publisher. Octavo. Pictorial boards with swan woman flying over city at night. Publisher's fine pictorial DJ with cut out in center to show board.
Quarto. Black paper covered boards with titles in red gilt to spine. Fine in a fine DJ.

The Wildest Things

Andrea Hannah
Wednesday Books
New York, 2025
1st edition, 1st printing
Quarto. Black paper covered boards with titles in red gilt to spine. Fine in a fine DJ.
Octavo. Original grey cloth over bevelled boards, spine and front cover lettered in gilt and illustrated in red, gilt details to front cover, yellow coated endpapers, gilt edges. Frontispiece and illustrations in the text. Spine browned, extremities rubbed, touch of wear to corners, cloth a little soiled, contents fresh, a very good copy. First edition, highly uncommon, of the third and final collection of fairy tales by Mary De Morgan. Alongside subverting many traditional fairy tale tropes the tales subtly include Mary's political views, and recent scholars have suggested feminist readings of the work, supported by de Morgan's active role in the suffrage movement. According to the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folk Tales and Fairy Tales, de Morgan's fairy tales played a "comprehensive and central role" in the Victorian evolution of the literary fairy tale. They deviate from the fairy tale norm in a number of ways (for example in The Rain Maiden where the title character refuses to wed and consequently disappears, leaving the tale oppen ended without a classic happy ending) or by not having the protagonist gain wealth or power (rather procuring the wisdom of recognizing the value of living without these things). The illustrations, exemplary of de MOrgan's close association with the arts and crafts coterie, were by the artist Olive Cockerell, sister of Sydney Cockerell, William Morris's private secretary towards the end of his life. Cockerell provided illustrations for stories by Anna Marie Diana Wilhelmina Pickering, sister of Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, including her popular Queen of the Goblins published in 1892. cockerell developed an interest in fairy stories from a young age, her godmother, the social reformer Octavia Hill, referencing her interest when sending her a brooch in 1876, writing: "it is a funny little old-fashioned brooch, but I thought it was very pretty; and I liked it, because it looked as if it had a history. I thought you might like it for this reason too. But I am afraid it will not begin to speak to you, like those delightful things in Andersen's stories." Mary de Morgan's previous fairy stories were illustrated by William de Morgan and Walter Crane.

The Windfairies and Other Tales

Mary De Morgan, Olive Cockerell (illust.)
Seeley and Co., Limited
London, 1900
1st edition
Octavo. Original grey cloth over bevelled boards, spine and front cover lettered in gilt and illustrated in red, gilt details to front cover, yellow coated endpapers, gilt edges. Frontispiece and illustrations in the text. Spine browned, extremities rubbed, touch of wear to corners, cloth a little soiled, contents fresh, a very good copy. First edition, highly uncommon, of the third and final collection of fairy tales by Mary De Morgan. Alongside subverting many traditional fairy tale tropes the tales subtly include Mary's political views, and recent scholars have suggested feminist readings of the work, supported by de Morgan's active role in the suffrage movement. According to the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folk Tales and Fairy Tales, de Morgan's fairy tales played a "comprehensive and central role" in the Victorian evolution of the literary fairy tale. They deviate from the fairy tale norm in a number of ways (for example in The Rain Maiden where the title character refuses to wed and consequently disappears, leaving the tale oppen ended without a classic happy ending) or by not having the protagonist gain wealth or power (rather procuring the wisdom of recognizing the value of living without these things). The illustrations, exemplary of de MOrgan's close association with the arts and crafts coterie, were by the artist Olive Cockerell, sister of Sydney Cockerell, William Morris's private secretary towards the end of his life. Cockerell provided illustrations for stories by Anna Marie Diana Wilhelmina Pickering, sister of Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, including her popular Queen of the Goblins published in 1892. cockerell developed an interest in fairy stories from a young age, her godmother, the social reformer Octavia Hill, referencing her interest when sending her a brooch in 1876, writing: "it is a funny little old-fashioned brooch, but I thought it was very pretty; and I liked it, because it looked as if it had a history. I thought you might like it for this reason too. But I am afraid it will not begin to speak to you, like those delightful things in Andersen's stories." Mary de Morgan's previous fairy stories were illustrated by William de Morgan and Walter Crane.
Quarto. Pictorial cloth boards, stamped in gilt on front board. Pictorial endpapers and title page. Illustrated throughout. Fine.

White as Milk, Red as Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schömwerth

Shelley Tanaka (transl), Willow Dawson (illust), Phillip Pullman (foreword)
Alfred A. Knopf Canada
Toronto, 2018
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Quarto. Pictorial cloth boards, stamped in gilt on front board. Pictorial endpapers and title page. Illustrated throughout. Fine.
Black paper covered boards, title to spine in gilt. Original picotrial dustjacket. Fine.

The Wolf and the Woodsman

Ava Reid
Del Rey
London, 2021
1st edition
Black paper covered boards, title to spine in gilt. Original picotrial dustjacket. Fine.

A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales

Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling (eds)
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
1st edition
Octavo. Black paper covered boards, titles in green gilt to spine. Original pictorial DJ. Fine.
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Wonder Story Series: Jack the Giant Killer

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McLaughlin Bros
New York, 1889
Pamphlet, tight and secure, complete with all pages. Includes full-page color illustrations throughout. Two tears to cover, otherwise very good.
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Slim quarto. Pictorial paperback. Fine.

Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China

Ai-Ling Louie (retold by), Ed Young (illust.)
Puffin Books
New York, 1999
Reissue
Slim quarto. Pictorial paperback. Fine.

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