Tag: Children’s literature

Australian Library’s Exhibit Is Unbearably Cute

Blinky Bill Made His Debut In 1933, And Has Been The Best Pal Of Australian Kids Ever Since.Wall, Dorothy, 1894-1942. Blinky Bill : the quaint little Australian / story and decorations by Dorothy Wall. (Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1940).(Image Courtesy Of Monash University Library.)For American kids, it's Curious George or The Cat In The Hat. For English kids it's Peter Rabbit. But for Australian kids the most beloved mischief-maker in children's literature is a koala named Blinky Bill. A new exhibit at Australia's Monash University Library highlights the boy-like bear (okay, koala's aren't really bears but you get the...

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Bambi’s Dark Secret

Note that the book is featured in the movie's poster,typical during Hollywood's Golden Age.Walt Disney may turn in his grave or thaw and drop deader if and when he learns that Bambi, the book he adapted to create the animation classic, was written by a man who is solidly credited as being the anonymous author of a celebrated and notorious work of German erotica.In 1906, an erotic memoir was privately published. Purportedly written by a Viennese prostitute at the end of her life, Josefine Mutzenbacher, oder Die Geschichte einer Wienerischen Dirne, it became a popular success; it is now a...

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The Riddle of Arthur Rackham’s "Faithful Friends" Solved?

The Deluxe Two-Shilling true first edition of 1901 with all edges gilt.Every now and then a book lands on my desk that none of the usual sources agree upon, a volume that is a bibliographical nightmare with few copies in institutional holdings, each, apparently, a different edition but all of them issued without a date of publication, and with few details in the records to help sort things out.Such a book is Faithful Friends, a children's book illustrated by, amongst others, Arthur Rackham. Latimore & Haskell and Derek Hudson declare 1913 as the year of this book's first publication, yet...

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Rare Maurice Sendak "Where The Wild Things Are" Original Art Surfaces

A standard, letter-size envelope featuring Where The Wild Things Are original art by its sender, Maurice Sendak, has recently surfaced.The envelope (3 1/2 x 6 1/2 in; 90 x 165 mm), postmarked New York Jan 27, 1966, is autograph addressed by Sendak to fellow Caldecott Medal award winner, Nonny Hogrogian, with Sendak's autograph name and return address to the flap. Considering its journey through the United States Postal Service and forty-three year life, it is in miraculous condition.Original artwork by Sendak associated with and near contemporary to the publishing of his classic Where the Wild Things Are is exceedingly rare.The...

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