Stuart Little
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945. Single volume, measuring 8 x 5.25 inches: [8], 131, [1]. Original pale grey pictorial cloth stamped in green and orange, green pictorial endpapers, original clipped color pictorial dust jacket. Black and white illustrations throughout text. Tiny chips to jacket folds and head of spine panel. Laid in: publisher’s announcement, printed in blue ink on blue paper, titled “Introducing Stuart Little.” Loss to one corner of announcement, not affecting text or images.
First edition of E.B. White’s first book for children, following a courageous young mouse who is born, improbably, into a family of human New Yorkers. White worked on Stuart’s story for almost twenty years; as the back panel of the jacket notes, “He began Stuart Little in the hope of amusing a six-year-old niece of his, but before he finished it she had grown up and was reading Hemingway.” This copy includes the publisher’s promotional announcement, featuring a preview of the celebrated illustrations by Garth Williams, and promising readers “fantasy, comedy, satire, adventure, all rolled into one.” Stated first edition, with codes 10-5 and I-U on copyright page. A near-fine copy of a childhood classic, with scarce publisher's ephemera.
Price: $1,500.00