Page 55 - Swann Galleries - 20th Century Illustration - Sale 2300 - January 24, 2013

90 ● HELEN SEWELL. Langer, Suzanne. The Cruise of the Little Dipper. Mock-
up with original illustrations and cut-and-pasted text * First Trade Edition. Together, 2
volumes. Trade has color frontispiece and four color plates and illustrations in pink
throughout the text by Sewell; 8vo, gilt-lettered cobalt blue cloth, all edges trimmed and
stained mint green; dust jacket, chips along edges and separation along spine panel. Mock-
up described below. NewYork: Norcross, 1923 [1,000/1,500]
A CHARMING AND RARE ARTIFACT OF LANGER
AND SEWELL’S EARLY CAREERS. The mock-up is
same blue cloth and same size, but with no printing
on covers; Sewell has painted in rose watercolor or
sketched in pencil early versions of the illustrations
that would appear on the endpapers and vignettes
throughout the book.As compared final version, some
images are deleted, placed on other pages, or altered.
The text is cut and pasted to leaves in the blank book
as are several of the vignettes already printed on glossy
stock. In Sewell’s or perhaps Langer’s hand are title-
page and chapter titles and illustration captions in
pencil, along with several textual edits. Scattered wear
and occasional dampstaining, hinges cracked.
Langer, a pioneering American philosopher and
educator, is best known for her widely read book
“Philosophy in a New Key” (1942) which became
a standard text in most college philosophy classes.
The Cruise of the Little Dipper was her first book
and the only children’s book she wrote. She asked her childhood friend, Helen Sewell, to illustrate the
work of fairy tales which touched upon ideas of myth that she would use in her future philosophical
explorations. It is considered Sewell’s first book as well. She went on to illustrate several Caldecott and
Newberry Honor books.This work was reproduced in 1963.