Madeline

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939. First edition of the first of Ludwig Bemelmans’s exuberant Madeline books, featuring the adventures of a daring schoolgirl and her classmates at Miss Clavel’s school “in a place pronounced Paree.” Bemelmans’s detailed illustrations introduced generations of American children to the landmarks of Paris: in Madeline, he depicts the Place de la Concorde, the Opera, the Place Vendôme, Les Invalides, Notre-Dame, Sacré-Coeur, the Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens, and the Eiffel Tower. First issue, with twelve girls (instead of the logical eleven) depicted after the class’s return from visiting Madeline in the hospital: “They went home and broke their bread.” A near-fine copy of a childhood classic. Single volume, measuring 12 x 9 inches: [48]. Original color pictorial paper boards, color pictorial endpapers, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket priced at $2.00. Color illustrations throughout text. Occasional stray smudge to text; offsetting from binder’s glue to endpapers; expert restoration to dust jacket. (Inventory #: 1003890)