The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real.
"BUT HE NEVER KNEW THAT REALLY IT WAS HIS OWN BUNNY, COME BACK TO LOOK AT THE CHILD WHO HAD FIRST HELPED HIM TO BE REAL": FIRST EDITION OF MARGERY WILLIAMS' BELOVED CHILDREN'S CLASSIC THE VELVETEEN RABBIT
The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real.
BIANCO, Margery Williams.
$22,500.00
Item Number: 138402
London: Heinemann, 1922.
First edition, English issue (published simultaneously with the American issue) of this beloved children’s classic, “one of the first modern picture books, a perfect combination of story and pictures” (Mahony, 234), with seven beautiful color illustrations by William Nicholson. Quarto, original paper-covered pictorial boards and cloth spine, pictorial endpapers, illustrated with seven color illustrations (three double-page) by William Nicholson. In very good condition. Uncommon.
“Margery Bianco’s first children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit, was written while she was living in England… Her own two children were young and at an age when toys meant much to them. She had vivid memories of the toys she had loved as a child, and this thinking about toys and remembering toys suddenly brought them to life. The Velveteen Rabbit introduced English artist, William Nicholson, to the field of children’s books” (Meigs et al., 473). Nicholson’s work has been placed “in the front rank among picture-books of this century” (Marcus Crouch).
