JACK THE GIANT KILLER (HUGH THOMSON'S ILLUSTRATED FAIRY BOOKS)
by Thomson, Hugh
- Used
- good
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Eugene, Oregon, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
York, England: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1898. First Edition. Softcover in custom case. Good. Softbound 8 1/4" x 6 3/4. A suppressed work by the hugely prolific illustrator Hugh Thomson. With bright color images to front and rear panels, sixteen full-page color chromolithograph illustrations within, and all the other pages with several black and white illustrations along right and left margins, and along the bottom of each page, which drive the story forward.
Thomson pulled no punches in this gorey, pull-no-punches retelling of the famous folk ("Jack") tale. 31 pp. An old cello-tape repair along front cover, and a small taped patch to front panel. Housed in custom slipcase, quarter-bound black calf over marbled boards, double-ruled in gilt, with apparently later spine label laid over original, this one with bold silver lettering and linked-diamond decorations. Quite uncommon. OCLC lists only one library -- The National Library of Scotland -- as holding an actual, physical copy of this censored work. The illustrations are fabulous, graphic, horrific, and without a doubt, frightening enough to scare the knickers off lads and lasses now long buried in that giant-free place, surely at peace. "...the delayed JACK THE GIANT KILLER, announced as the first of "Hugh Thomson's 'Illustrated Fairy Books' -- and destined to be the only one. The artist, with something of a child's delight in fearsome 'make believe', had rendered the story all too realistically for the taste of those grown-up folks who are the buyers of children's books. Most healthy children themselves find delight in the weird and gory - hence the lasting vogue of stories such as this particular one -- but their elders...regard their youngsters as delicate sentimentalists, to whom the grim and gory would be shocking. Thus it was that the monstrous giants of Hugh Thomson's imagining failed to win popularity, and that, in spite of all the glory of riotouscolour and fantastic atrocity, the series did not pass beyond this tentative first quarto-size pamphlet..." ("Hugh Thomson: His Art His Letters His humour and His Charm" by M.H. Spielman and Walter Jerrold, 1931).
Thomson pulled no punches in this gorey, pull-no-punches retelling of the famous folk ("Jack") tale. 31 pp. An old cello-tape repair along front cover, and a small taped patch to front panel. Housed in custom slipcase, quarter-bound black calf over marbled boards, double-ruled in gilt, with apparently later spine label laid over original, this one with bold silver lettering and linked-diamond decorations. Quite uncommon. OCLC lists only one library -- The National Library of Scotland -- as holding an actual, physical copy of this censored work. The illustrations are fabulous, graphic, horrific, and without a doubt, frightening enough to scare the knickers off lads and lasses now long buried in that giant-free place, surely at peace. "...the delayed JACK THE GIANT KILLER, announced as the first of "Hugh Thomson's 'Illustrated Fairy Books' -- and destined to be the only one. The artist, with something of a child's delight in fearsome 'make believe', had rendered the story all too realistically for the taste of those grown-up folks who are the buyers of children's books. Most healthy children themselves find delight in the weird and gory - hence the lasting vogue of stories such as this particular one -- but their elders...regard their youngsters as delicate sentimentalists, to whom the grim and gory would be shocking. Thus it was that the monstrous giants of Hugh Thomson's imagining failed to win popularity, and that, in spite of all the glory of riotouscolour and fantastic atrocity, the series did not pass beyond this tentative first quarto-size pamphlet..." ("Hugh Thomson: His Art His Letters His humour and His Charm" by M.H. Spielman and Walter Jerrold, 1931).
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Details
- Bookseller
- Aardvark Rare Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 85015
- Title
- JACK THE GIANT KILLER (HUGH THOMSON'S ILLUSTRATED FAIRY BOOKS)
- Author
- Thomson, Hugh
- Format/Binding
- Softcover in custom case
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Macmillan and Co. Limited
- Place of Publication
- York, England
- Date Published
- 1898
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- Suppressed Children's Books, Censored Children's Books, Unsanitized British Children's Books. ABAA-HOLIDAY-2023
Terms of Sale
Aardvark Rare Books
Returns Policy: 30 Day Returns, with prior approval, in same condition as when shipped.
About the Seller
Aardvark Rare Books
Biblio member since 2004
Eugene, Oregon
About Aardvark Rare Books
Member of ABAA, ILAB, & IOBA: Continuously in business since 1995.USPAP-COMPLIANT APPRAISALS of rare books, manuscripts, collections and archives. Accredited Member AMERICAN SOCIETY OF APPRAISERS (ASA)Toll-Free Order Line: 1-800-434-6033.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Marbled boards
- ...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Spine Label
- The paper or leather descriptive tag attached to the spine of the book, most commonly providing the title and author of the...
- Calf
- Calf or calf hide is a common form of leather binding. Calf binding is naturally a light brown but there are ways to treat the...