Madeline.

BEMELMANS, Ludwig.

$12,500.00

Item Number: 146780

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939.

First edition, first issue of this classic children’s book with the 1939 date on the title page and with 12 girls instead of 11 in the “They went home and broke their bread” illustration. Thin folio, original illustrated boards, color illustrations throughout, illustrated endpapers. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Elinor Green Ludwig Bemelmans.” The recipient, Elinor Green, was the promotions director at Simon and Schuster in the 1940s, and married Merle Miller in 1948. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Light rubbing to the extremities and spine of the dust jacket, closed tear to the bottom edge of the front panel of the dust jacket. A nice association, first editions signed and inscribed are rare.

First published in 1939, each Madeline story begins: "In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines... the smallest one was Madeline." “The original inspiration for Madeline was the convent where Bemelmans’ mother was educated as a child, along with the author’s own experience in boarding school, where he walked with his classmates in two straight lines” (Silvey, 55).