Description

“WE’VE DUG SO FAST AND WE’VE DUG SO WELL THAT WE’VE QUITE FORGOTTEN TO LEAVE A WAY OUT!”

BURTON, Virginia Lee. Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Riverside, 1939. Oblong quarto, original pictorial tan cloth, pictorial endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of the beloved children’s classic. Very scarce.

“Taking her cue from her small sons, Aristides and Michael, Burton chose subjects that would intrigue children? [including] Mary Ann, the steam shovel? [Burton’s books] have heroes and heroines children can understand and enjoy, ingenious and satisfactory endings and lively illustrations. The books survive because they exhibit so effectively the elements most basic to children’s literature” (Silvey, 109-10). First edition, with 1939 date on title page.

Book unusually nice, with only faint foxing to cloth mainly affecting rear board. Fragile dust jacket extremely good, with slightest soiling, a bit of edge-wear, and chipping to upper corners. A handsome copy of an exceptionally scarce title.