Description

EXTRAORDINARY SNOW WHITE, ONE OF ONLY THREE KNOWN COPIES SIGNED BY WALT DISNEY AND 51 OF THE SNOW WHITE ANIMATORS: FIRST EDITION OF DISNEY’S SNOW WHITE STORYBOOK, 1937

(DISNEY STUDIOS). Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1937. Slim folio, original half black cloth and pictorial paper boards, illustrated endpapers, original matching dust jacket.

First edition of this wonderfully illustrated storybook of the first full-length animated feature film, with numerous full-page and in-text color illustrations, boldly signed on the front free endpaper and the title page by Disney and 51 of the 64 animators who contributed to the ground-breaking movie.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs graced the screen in 1937 as Disney’s defiance of the prevailing industry wisdom that “animation could never sustain a feature-length film. Disney proved [critics] spectacularly short-sighted” (Silvey, 204). Snow White continues to command respect, “its animation still impressive, its characterization generally excellent, its narrative drive compelling and its sense of quintessential fantasy strong” (Clute & Grant, 883). “Walt Disney retains a centrality in American culture granted to few 20th-century figures? [and he] remains the central figure in the history of animation” (ANB). In September 1938, RKO held a convention in Paris, to which 24 potential European distributors of Snow White were invited. For this important two-day business meeting, Disney orchestrated the signing of a number of copies of the book version of Snow White to be given as gifts. This is one of those wonderful signed copies. The majority of images for Snow White have been attributed to noted artist Gustaf Tenggren, whose signature appears at the top of the front free endpaper (verso). “Tenggren gave Snow White the Old World look that Walt Disney sought for his breakthrough animated feature? His Scandinavian heritage influenced his work in the scenes he created for Snow White” (Library of Congress). In addition to Tenggren, signees include six others of the nine lead animators, later affectionately called by Disney, “nine old men:” Les Clark, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Lawson, Woolie Reitherman and Frank Thomas. The remaining autographs include those of character designers, art directors and supervising animators. With publisher’s cipher “M-M” (December 1937) on copyright page. Interior fine, signatures bold and clear. Shelf-wear to bottom edges. Chipping to extremities of near-fine dust jacket. A very scarce copy (only two others known) of this extraordinary prize of Disneyana.