About this Item
69pp. No date on title page; '1967' on copyright page; No 'First Edition'; No number line on last page; first issue points all present. Brown cloth with paste-down illustration of "Jennie the Sealyham terrier" on front cover (Fine condition: dustwrapper did its job); spine still has bright gilt-stamped lettering and design elements; top edge stained brown; tan endpapers; hint of sunning on very top of cover edges and slightly under dw along very top and bottom edges, else unqualifiedly Fine. Light blue borders for dustwrapper, not price-clipped ($4.95), with '1067' at lower left front panel and a '$4.43' at lower right front panel (NOT price-clipped there, which evidently usually occurs or is not reported, if price is present); 5 titles listed on rear panel. Dustwrapper front cover illustrated with Sendak's illustration of "Jennie", suitcase in her jowls, sighting the path to a house in the distant background; title lettering in brown over light yellow background across top front cover, while author name and Publisher name are in brown over yellow background across bottom front cover. One short (1/4") closed tear on front cover lower edge near corner; one 5/8" curved closed tear on lower edge rear cover at 1 3/4" to left of spine corner; chipped across spine ends and top corner right front cover: these peccadilloes are now backed with archival tape; some superficial intermittent flecking of light blue along right edge front cover and left edge rear cover and lower front cover edge, revealing intermittent white beneath; spine lightly browned, but all lettering still sharp and distinct, eminently readable: Now in Brodart mylar, which forgives these imperfections graciously. Solid copy: strong binding (NO cracks); square corners; no remainder marks. Clean text. Previous owner signature, top right ffep, that of Margaret (Bloy Graham) Zion (1920-2015), illustrator of well-known Children's books, "All Falling Down" and "Harry the Dirty Dog" [four books in the Harry the Dog Series], which she wrote with her first husband, Gene Zion, whom she met when they both worked at Conde Nast as illustrators or commercial artists. From her obituary in The Guardian: "Graham and Zion divorced in 1968 [ostensibly, plausibly, a year after obtaining this copy of Sendak's book]. After their split, Graham wrote and illustrated her own stories, beginning with Be Nice to Spiders (1967). She created Benjy, a new doggy character, who first appeared in Benjy and the Barking Bird (1971) and then in several follow-ups, ending with Benjy and his Friend Fifi (1988). She also worked with other authors, including illustrating Jack Prelutsky?s collection The Pack Rat?s Day and Other Poems (1974) and What If? (1987) and It?s Spring! (1989) by Else Homelund Minarik. Her second marriage, to Oliver Wendell Holmes, ended in divorce." After her divorce from Gene Zion, Zion never published again. Margaret (Bloy Graham) Zion died in Cambridge, MA in 2015.
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