Gentle Ben.

MOREY, Walt.

Item Number: 119063

New York: E. P. Dutton, 1965.

Early printing of Morey’s Dutton Junior Animal Book Award-winning book. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated by John Schoenherr. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Best wishes to Alice Walt Morey 5-7-88.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket.

Gentle Ben tells the story of Mark Andersen, a young teenage boy growing up in Alaska before statehood who, after the death of his older brother, befriends an Alaskan brown bear named Ben that was captured as a cub by local drunkard. The novel provided the basis for the 1967 film Gentle Giant, the popular late 1960s U.S. television series Gentle Ben, a 1980s animated cartoon and two early 2000s made-for-TV movies.