Bambi’s Children: The Story of a Forest Family.

SALTEN, Felix.

$5,000.00

Item Number: 131302

Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill, 1939.

First edition of this classic work, the sequel to Bambi. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated by Erna Pinner. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Charles Felix Salten.” The recipient, Charles Austin Perry, was an Episcopal clergyman and longtime Provost of the Washington National Cathedral. Near fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket, bookplate of the recipient. Translated by Barthold Fles. Edited by R. Sugden Tilley. Books signed by Salten are exceptionally rare.

The sequel to Bambi follows the lives of the twin children of Bambi and his mate Faline as they grow from fawns to young adults. Salten wrote the sequel while living in exile in Switzerland after being forced to flee Nazi-occupied Austria as he was of Jewish heritage. Written in German, the novel was first published in English in the United States in 1939 by Bobbs-Merrill. It was not published in German until the following year. Perri, a squirrel character from one of Salten's earlier novels, makes several appearances in the book. The models for Geno and Gurri were Felix Salten's own children, Paul who was careful and timid, and Anna Katharina, who was merry and optimistic. Salten also included himself as the responsible and humane hunter in the novel.