Roland: The Minstrel Pig

William Steig

Published by Windmill Books, New York, 1968

About this Item

Possibly a First Edition (NAP). I'm not finding anything that reports how Windmill Books identifies first editions. Roland: The Minstrel Pig was William Steig's first children's book. You can see the blue covers in the photos. They are very clean. The black lettering on the spine is nicely bright. The top edges have a few darkish tints and one tiny spot of rubbing. The corners have just a tiny bit of light rubbing, no rub-through. The book is very solidly bound from cover to cover with nicely tight pages throughout and nicely tight covers as well. The pages are in very good condition. I didn't see any conspicuous creasing, no turned-down corners or placeholder creases. I saw just a little bit of mild crinkling. The pages are quite clean. I saw only a small number of mild spots, nothing that stands out. The inside covers and end papers are mustard-colored. There are very clean. On the rear side of the rear end paper there are some lightly and neatly drawn red and blue penciled lines, pretty but perhaps better somewhere else. There is also a penciled (regular pencil) name and address (city, state). Also at the top corner of the copyright page there is a black penned letter 'P'. There is no other writing in the book. There are no attachments of any kind. You can see the dust jacket in the first few photos. The first will reveal the loss off the front bottom edge. There is also a thin tear above it. There are a couple of small tears off the front top edge, fairly small losses off the spine's top and bottom edges, and a couple of tears off the top edge of the rear cover. In the third photo you can see that there is what appears to be a water stain to the left of Roland. The stain did not have any impact on the rear cover of the book or on any part of the book. The flaps are in solid condition, a little crinkling at their top edges. The front flap has clips at both its top and bottom corners. The price is removed. The jacket will be fitted with a protective cover after the photos are scanned. 'Hailed as the King of Cartoons, Steig began drawing illustrations and cartoons for The New Yorker in 1930, producing more than 2,600 drawings and 117 covers for the magazine. One of his cartoon characters, Poor Pitiful Pearl, was made into a popular line of dolls starting in 1956. Later, when he was 61, Steig began writing children's books. In 1968, he published his first children's book, Roland: The Minstrel Pig. He excelled here as well, and his third book, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1969), won the Caldecott Medal. He went on to write more than 30 children's books, including the Doctor De Soto series, and he continued to write into his nineties. Among his other well-known works, the picture book Shrek! (1990) formed the basis for the DreamWorks Animation film Shrek (2001). After the release of Shrek 2 in 2004, Steig became the first sole-creator of an animated movie franchise that went on to generate over $1 billion from theatrical and ancillary markets after only one sequel. When asked his opinion about the movie based on his picture book Shrek, William Steig responded: 'It?s vulgar, it's disgusting-- and I loved it.' In 1984, Steig's film adaptation of Doctor De Soto, directed by Michael Sporn, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Also in 1984, Steig received the CINE Golden Eagle Award in Education for the film adaptation of this book.'. Seller Inventory # 004684

Bibliographic Details

Title: Roland: The Minstrel Pig

Publisher: Windmill Books, New York

Publication Date: 1968

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Fair