Nibbles and Me

New York: Duell, Sloan, & Pierce, 1946. First Edition. Very good/Very good. Elizabeth Taylor. Square 8vo, 7.25 x 8 inches (203 x 184 mm), 77 pp., printed in black, green and brown ink (illustrations in green and sepia). Very Good, with a Very Good lightly chipped dust jacket: endpapers and dust jacket mildly browned, $1 price in to corner of rear DJ panel unclipped Library Edition printed on flap of dust jacket.
INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY: "To David Lee, Elizabeth & Nibbles" written boldly on the inside front cover.
With a written note on title page "From Aunt Lee, Los Angeles, Calif., Friday August 2, '46". Silver embossed labels from the renowned Bullock's department store in Los Angeles are affixed to the inside front cover and the inside rear cover.

Includes a signed (in pencil at rear) 4 x 5 inch Metro Goldwyn Mayer PUBLICITY PHOTOGRAPH of child actor Elizabeth Taylor holding a cat (c. 1944). This signed presentation copy of the book written and illustrated by Elizabeth Taylor at age 13 is a children's book about a pet chipmunk. The young Elizabeth Taylor was paid $1,000 for her story by New York-based publisher Duell, Sloan and Pearce. She first found Nibbles while filming "Courage of Lassie". According to Taylor, "Nibbles and Me sprang from a school assignment. Each week we had to do an essay on any subject we chose, and Nibbles was my favorite subject. I kept a diary of our experiences together. I think it was the teacher's suggestion that I write it with a sense of continuity, as if it were a book." [from Christie's sale 2364, lot 920]

The Publisher's note reads: " 'Nibbles and Me' came to us written in a school copybook in the penciled handwriting of a thirteen-year-old girl ... She played Velvet in 'National Velvet' and at the time of this book she was acting in 'Blue Sierra'. Elizabeth started to write about the life of her chipmunk, Nibbles, simply out of affection for him...