EARLY CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND THEIR ILLUSTRATION. Essay by J.H.Plumb

New York: The Pierpoint Morgan Library and David R. Godine, Publisher, 1975. First Edition. With 225 full colour and black and illustrations. Folio, publisher's original red cloth with gilt lettering to the spine panel, and with the colour pictorial dustjacket. xxx, 263 pp. A fine copy, very fresh and well preserved. FIRST EDITION AND AN EXTENSIVE CATALOGUE WITH MAGNIFICENT ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT. "Among the priceless treasures of The Pierpont Morgan Library is a very large collection of early children's books, one of the most important and comprehensive of its kind in the world. Some of these classics of children's literature have never before been exposed to the public, while others are old favorites. From these incomparable holdings, representing more than a thousand years of social, literary, and art history, Gerald Gottlieb, Curator of Early Children's Books at the Library, has chosen to present and discuss 225 outstanding examples of books and manuscripts, most of them written, designed, and illustrated for children. This is not, emphatically, a 'children's book,' but it is - through its sparkling text and splendid illustrations, many in full color - a window into a world we all once loved and inhabited.