Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

DISNEY, Walt.

Item Number: 26055

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1937.

First edition of this wonderfully illustrated storybook of the first full length animated feature film. Folio, original half cloth, pictorial endpapers, illustrated. Inscribed by Walt Disney on the copyright page. In very good condition with rubbing and wear to the extremities. First editions are rare signed by Walt Disney.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs graced the screen in 1937 as Disney’s defiance of the prevailing industry wisdom that “animation could never sustain a feature-length film. Disney proved [critics] spectacularly short-sighted” (Silvey, 204). It premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937, followed by a nationwide release on February 4, 1938. It was a critical and commercial success, and with international earnings of $8 million during its initial release briefly assumed the record of highest grossing sound film at the time. The popularity of the film has led to it being re-released theatrically many times, until its home video release in the 1990s. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top ten performers at the North American box office. At the 11th Academy Awards, Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar, and the film was nominated for Best Musical Score the year before. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry and is ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films, who also named the film as the greatest American animated film of all time in 2008.