1922 Tales from Shakespeare, Charles & Mary Lamb, SIGNED: Maud & Miska Petersham

Description: 1922 Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles & Mary Lamb, Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott illustrator. Published by David McKay Co.: Philadelphia, 377 pp., 9.5" by 7" (8vo). Red-brown cloth boards with paste-on cover illustration and gilt and embossed pictorial and lettering on cover and spine. Color frontspiece plate with tissue guard; 11 color plates + 15 black-and-white line drawings. SIGNED gift inscription by Maud and Miska Petersham (see photo). From Wikipedia: "American writers and illustrators who helped set the direction for illustrated children's books that followed... Both prolific and versatile, they produced illustrations for more than 120 trade and textbooks, anthologies, and picture books." The Petershams won the 1943 Caldecott Medal. And interestingly, the Petershams illustrated the 1923 edition of Tales from Shakespeare. Bespoke gift book. Beautifully illustrated 1922 edition of the Charles and Mary Lamb retelling of Shakespeare narratives. This book was a literary milestone (see below), and the biographies of the authors and the illustrator are all worth a read. And the Petersham signatures make this a unique collector's book. Condition is Good. Gently bumped corners, very light wear to cover edges and top and bottom of spine. One small smudge to exterior page edges, otherwise very clean. Tissue guard over frontis plate is perfect (tissue without issue). Interior pages and plates are clean with faint foxing. This book would rate VG but for small stains (probably water droplets) on spine (see photos). About the Book: "Tales from Shakespeare is an English children's book written by the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807, intended "for the use of young persons" while retaining as much Shakespearean language as possible. Mary Lamb was responsible for retelling the comedies and Charles the tragedies. They omitted the more complex historical tales, including all Roman plays, and modified those they chose to retell in a manner sensitive to the needs of young children, but without resorting to actual censoring. However, subplots and sexual references were removed. Reportedly, Mary did not get her name on the title page till the seventh edition in 1838. The retelling of Lamb siblings remains uniquely faithful to the original and as such can be useful to children when they read or learn the plays as Shakespeare wrote them." (from Wikipedia) About the Authors: "Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb. Friends with such literary luminaries as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt, Lamb was at the centre of a major literary circle in England. He has been referred to by E.V. Lucas, his principal biographer, as 'the most lovable figure in English literature.'" "Mary Anne Lamb (1764-1847) was an English writer. She is best known for the collaboration with her brother Charles on the collection Tales from Shakespeare. Mary suffered from mental illness, and in 1796, aged 31, she stabbed her mother to death during a mental breakdown. She was confined to mental facilities for most of her remaining life. She and Charles presided over a literary circle in London that included the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among others." (from Wikipedia)·About the Illustrator: "Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-1954) was an American illustrator. She illustrated children's books and worked for publications such as The Ladies' Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post and Harper's Magazine. Green enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1887 and studied with the painters Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Thomas Eakins,and Robert Vonnoh. She then began study with Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute where she met Violet Oakley and Jessie Willcox Smith. In 1903, she and Florence Scovel Shinn became the first women to be elected Associate Members of the Society of Illustrators even though women were not allowed to be full members of the organization at that time. In 1905, Green won the Mary Smith Prize at the annual Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition. In 1994, she was elected posthumously to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame." (from Wikipedia)We will ship USPS Media Mail. For international shipping, please contact us for a quote. We proudly ship in reused Amazon boxes whenever possible. If you have any questions about this or any of our books, feel free to contact us and/or request additional photos.Who are we: This is another listings from "Nana's Top Shelf," a collection of first editions and other fine volumes collected over a lifetime from estate sales and booksellers across the East Coast and Europe. The collection specializes in late 19th and early 20th century illustrated children's books, fairy tales and folklore.

Price: 98 USD

Location: Davis, California

End Time: 2025-01-27T07:53:25.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.88 USD