Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2019 Issue

Children's Books from Shapero Rare Books

Children's Books.

Oh to be young again! Shapero Rare Books is offering a new catalogue of Children's Books. It is filled with familiar names whose books you read once upon a time - Seuss, Milne, Potter (Beatrix, not Harry), Rowling (your kids read her even if she came along too late for your youth), Carroll, Disney, Sendak, and Baum. Other names are more obscure. Some you don't always associate with children's books, such as Ian Fleming, or how about a Darwin? They're all here and more, and no, you can't be young again, but you can remember. These books will help do that. Here are a few samples.

 

We begin with a story that is something like what you would expect from its author, but also different. The author is L. Frank Baum, and this book is not Kansas, nor Oz for that matter. It is the story of a boy who is fascinated with electricity. The title is The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale, Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity and the Optimism of Its Devotees. It was published in 1901. That was the year after the publication of the first of the Oz books. In this story, the protagonist is a boy who is constantly playing with electrical devices. He gets a bit careless and sets off a reaction that opens the master key to electricity. It makes its presence known through the Demon of Electricity. The Demon promises three gifts a week for three weeks, and when the boy does not know what to request, the Demon makes the choices. In hindsight, we now know that many of the fantastic gifts he brought are things that have since been created by technological advances since 1901. There are gifts that provide communications around the world like a cell phone, news from everywhere like the internet, body armor, a taser-like device, and some things not yet created but coming soon, such as a pill that provides enough food for a day. Ultimately, the boy concludes society is not yet ready for all of this, and our use of some of these things today makes it questionable whether we are ready for them yet. Item 8. Priced at £380 (British pounds, or approximately $474 in U.S. dollars).

 

Here is a book that is even less expected for its author. If a Fleming or Darwin writing a children's book is surprising, how about Dr. Seuss writing one for adults? The dust jacket notes this is a good book to buy for your children, so long as you give it to them for their 70th birthday. The title is You're Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children. It was Seuss' last book, published in 1986, when he was 82 years old. Seuss had spent more time than he liked in hospital waiting rooms. He began sketching the machines he saw in typical Seussian fashion. The result is now even old folks can read a Dr. Seuss book without feeling guilty. Besides, if you have to go to a hospital, who would you rather have as your attending physician than Dr. Seuss? This copy has been signed by the Doctor himself. Item 96. £580 (US $723).

 

Usually, an edition of a book encompassing the 82nd thousands of copies is not the most desirable. This is not, obviously, a rare or valuable book on its own. However, an inscription can change that judgment in a hurry. Item 24 is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1886, two decades after the first edition. This copy was inscribed by Lewis Carroll (pen name for the author and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) to "Ida Georgina Weddell from the Author Sep. 15 1886". As usual, Dodgson/Carroll got around the name issue by inscribing it from "the author." Weddell and her siblings were young neighbors of "the author" at the time. They fit into the category of his many "child friends," the nature of whose relationships with Carroll remain a subject for endless speculation and interpretation by scholars. £3,900 (US $4,846).

 

It's not that obscure that Ian Fleming wrote a children's book (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), but who was the Darwin? The answer is Bernard Darwin. If Bernard doesn't ring a bell, and it probably doesn't, he was closely related to the one you do know. He was Charles Darwin's grandson. He was the son of Francis Darwin, who worked closely with his father in the latter's later years. Bernard grew up in Charles and Emma Darwin's home. His mother died shortly after his birth. He was a journalist and writer, but even so, the children's book is somewhat surprising. Bernard was a very good amateur golfer and most of his career was spent as a journalist and book author on topics related to golf. However, he and his wife, Elinor, wrote some children's stories and these are two of them: The Tale of Mr. Tootleoo (1925) and Tootleoo Two (1927). The provenance of these books is shown by the signature on the first volume, Henry Blofeld (aka "Blowers"), a fellow sports journalist focused more on cricket. Item 38. £275 (US $341).

 

Here is a book that Shapero describes as a "modern classic of children's literature." The title is The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. You might think it is about one of those cameras that have replaced real tollbooths, that photographs your license plate and sends out a bill. However, thankfully, those did not yet exist in 1961. It is the story of a bored boy who passes through a phantom tollbooth into a magical world. It has been compared to the previously mentioned Alice or Oz books, but this world of strange logic is based on language and math play and puns. So, Milo (the boy) starts out in a town called "Expectations," gets stuck in "Doldrums," befriends a dog with clocks on his side ("a watchdog"), passes the "Mountains of Ignorance," and is served a meal where people get to eat their words. Juster's purpose was to encourage young people to think, and the greatest piece of wisdom Milo learns is there is much exciting going on right here in the world he previously thought was boring. After a stint in the navy, Juster rented an apartment in New York and got a job as an architect. While he wrote several books along the way, his primary career remained as an architect and professor of architecture. He rented that apartment in New York with two other young men, one of whom was Jules Feiffer, one of the greatest cartoonists of the past 60 years. Feiffer supplied the illustrations. This is a first edition, first issue, with the first issue dust jacket, signed by Juster. Incidentally, both Juster and Feiffer turned 90 this year. Item 58. £1,500 (US $1,865).

 

Shapero Rare Books may be reached at +44 (0)20 7493 0876 or rarebooks@shapero.com. Their website is www.shapero.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 19th Century Shop
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    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
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    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

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