Madeline.

BEMELMANS, Ludwig.

Item Number: 145095

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939.

First edition, first printing of the first book in the Madeline series, with the correct 1939 date on the title page. Thin folio, original pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers, illustrated by the author. Boldly signed by Ludwig Bemelmans on the front free illustrated endpaper. In good condition with splitting to the exterior spine hinges and rubbing to the extremities. Rare and desirable signed.

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).