BIRTH OFTHE “POP-UP” BOOK
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(CHILDREN’S LITERATURE.)
Collodi, Carlo.
The “Pop-Up”
Pinocchio.
4 double-page colored pop-
up illustrations, other illustrations in the
text and pictorial endpapers by Harold
Lentz. 4to, publisher’s pictorial boards,
mild shelf wear; dust jacket, overall slight
tanning, some creasing with a few nicks,
minor scattered soiling; last signature split-
ting, four functioning full-color pop-ups
in very good condition.
NewYork: Blue Ribbon Books, (1932)
[400/600]
FIRST EDITION
.
Harold Lentz and Blue Ribbon
Books coined the phrase “Pop-Up Book” which
they soon patented. Pinocchio was one of the first
two books issued in this format, and was still
pending at the time of publication; the verso of the
title-page stating “Patents applied for.”
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“MERRY CHRISTMAS IN JULY”
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(CHILDREN’S LITERATURE.) Davies,Valentine.
Miracle on 34th Street.
Small
8vo, original silver-lettered brown buckram with blindstamped Santa device on front cover;
pictorial dust jacket, corners clipped retaining price, spine panel dampstained mostly evident
on verso, light edgewear; previous owner’s overlapping blindstamps on lower front free end-
paper and half-title.
NewYork: Harcourt, Brace and Company, (1947)
[600/900]
FIRST EDITION
,
PRESENTATION COPY
,
INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION BY THE
AUTHOR
on front free endpaper “For Irv & Edna, Merry Christmas in July with much love,
from Val, July 28, 1947.” Based on the original screenplay for the film starring Maureen
O’Hara and Edmund Gwenn, the book was rushed into publication in order to coinicide with
the film’s opening in the summer of 1947; the rear panel of the dust jacket serves as a tie-in for
the movie (“After you read the book—see the picture”). Miracle on 34th Street earned Davies
an Academy Award for Best Story. On the shortlist of all-time Christmas greats, with signed
copies seldom encountered.
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