Description
A GREAT CHILDREN’S RARITY: INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION OF THE VELVETEEN RABBIT
BIANCO, Margery Williams. The Velveteen Rabbit, Or How Toys Become Real. London: Heinemann (Whitefriars Press), 1922. Tall octavo, original pictorial boards, original dust jacket.
First edition, English issue (simultaneous with the American issue) of this beloved children’s classic, “one of the first modern picture books, a perfect combination of story and pictures” (Mahony, 234), with seven beautiful color chromolithographs (three double-page) by William Nicholson. Warmly inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the half title: “For Lou & Emily Paley from Margery Williams Bianco. Nov-22.”
“Margery Bianco’s first children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit, was written while she was living in England… Her own two children were young and at an age when toys meant much to them. She had vivid memories of the toys she had loved as a child, and this thinking about toys and remembering toys suddenly brought them to life. Velveteen Rabbit introduced English artist, William Nicholson, to the field of children’s books” (Meigs, 473). Nicholson’s work has been placed “in the front rank among picture-books of this century” (Marcus Crouch). The first English and American editions of The Velveteen Rabbit, both printed by Whitefriars Press in Tonbridge and published simultaneously by Heinemann and Doran, are extremely rare. Text block measures 9-3/4 inches high, with colophon that identifies the printer and states that the colored illustrations were done via lithography by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son. Only the first printing of the book occurs in this large size, with the chromolithographic plates as originally drawn by Nicholson (contemporary reprints were photo-mechanically reduced). See Bader, 25; Silvey, 487.
Book interior clean and fine, with vivid illustrations; expert restoration to spine and edges. Dust jacket with chip (3 by 1 inch) to spine and rear board, not affecting words or illustrations, and very minor soiling. An exceptionally rare and desirable inscribed first edition.
