James and the Giant Peach.

DAHL, Roald; Illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert.

Item Number: 3730

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.

First edition of this Dahl classic. Octavo, original cloth, beautifully illustrated, many full-page and in color. Inscribed by the author in the month of publication on the front free endpaper, “For Virginia Jane and Alexander Charles with lots of good wishes and heaps of love from Roald Dahl November 1961.” Additionally signed by the illustrator Nancy Ekholm Burkert on the half-title page. Fine in the original dust jacket that shows wear to the foot of the spine and a few small closed tears. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional example, rare signed and inscribed in the month of publication.

In 1953 Dahl married the actress Patricia Neal; they had three children, to whom he began to tell bedtime stories. James and the Giant Peach, the first of these to reach print, is a comic fantasy about a small boy who travels the world inside a huge peach, in company with several giant insects. Like most of Dahl’s children’s books, it first appeared in print in the United States (Carpenter & Prichard). It was made into the 1996 film produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi, directed by Henry Selick, starring Paul Terry as James. "When Tim Burton approached Roald Dahl's widow about his plan to make a film of James and the Giant Peach, she asked him why he wanted to do it. Burton's answer clinched the deal: 'It's the only book that ever gave me any hope when I was a child" (D is for Dahl, 68).