Description
“NOW I’M THE GRANDEST TIGER IN THE JUNGLE!”: FIRST EDITION OF THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO
BANNERMAN, Helen. The Story of Little Black Sambo. London: Grant Richards, 1899. 16mo, original pale green cloth lettered and stamped in dark green with ruled borders and vertical stripes. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of this children’s classic, featuring 27 full-page illustrations by the author, engraved on wood and color-printed by Edmund Evans.
“Bannerman wrote this story during a long railway journey to India, after having left two small daughters to be educated in her native Scotland. The author never intended the book for publication, but through the encouragement of her children and friends the manuscript was shown to E.V. Lucas who agreed to publish it as the fourth title in his series of The Dumpy Books for Children….When first published in October 1899, The Story of Little Black Sambo was a revolutionary-style picture book. Compared with its contemporary school of illustrators—Crane, Greenaway and Caldecott—the pictures are simple yet bold. The format of the book encouraged its handling by young owners, and the pages alternated between text and illustrations in a manner very appealing and appropriate to its compact size. It even seems probable that Beatrix Potter’s animal books, which began in 1901 with the privately printed Peter Rabbit, were at least influenced by the overall design of this book and, subsequently, so was the general success of the entire Dumpy series….Very few copies of the original printing have survived, and of the copies known, most have been badly worn because the small book was unable to withstand the constant handling of children….Should a census eventually be attempted, there would probably be fewer copies located than of the notoriously rare and suppressed 1865 Alice” (Schiller, 381-6). Barton, 109-10. Connolly, 31. Five Centuries of Childhood 136. Zipes et al., C5. Contemporary gift inscription.
Interior generally clean. Cloth with only very mild toning to spine, light rubbing to edges. Binding with expert restoration, as most often found. A lovely copy.
