noddy and the magic rubber

my husband and i were snickering at the title of this cute book...it's part of the noddy series, popular in great britain in the '50s. the illustrations by peter wienk and robert tyndall* are wonderful!

noddy and the magic rubber by enid blyton
first edition, 1954, sampson low, marston & co., ltd., london
* illustrators not credited

wings

apparently something called the literary guild review had a publication called wings back in the fifties. my guess is that the literary guild was is a book club of sorts. each issue has excerpts from books and a short paragraph by the author about their inspiration in writing the story. they're actually quite lovely. the illustrations are a plus. i had to stop myself from tearing each one apart and framing them all, they are that good. the issues i found are: august 1954, january 1955, april 1955, may 1955, and september 1955. the back pages are ads, and are interesting in their own right. neat issues, i'll certainly have my eye out for more.

enchanted isles

i want to travel to an enchanted isle...this child's treasury of literature holds many classics like "the elephant's child" by rudyard kipling. it's colorfully illustrated, has fantastic endpapers and is an all around wonderful resource for kids or grown-ups. it's book 3 in a series of 4 'readtext series' published by merrill books. also, all lithos...my favorite. this edition is perhaps the nicest former library edition ever, sadly it was never checked out, which explains it all. a hidden gem.

enchanted isles selected and edited by eleanor m. johnson and leland b. jacobs
readtext series treasury of literature, 1954, charles e. merrill books, new york
illustrated by mel crawford, grace dalles clarke, gertrude elliott, hugh lofting, kurt wiese, robert magnusen, decie merwin, and wiliam de j. rutherfoord

the big book of nursery tales

i'm not going to go on and on about how much i love this book. i am a lover of books, hands down. i'm specifically a lover of books such as this. if you've been following this blog, then you know this by now. i must start with leonard weisgard. he's just amazing. the cover of the book even reads, "beautifully illustrated by..." beyond that...nursery tales such as "goldilocks and the three bears," "little red riding hood," and similar stories are all time favs for a good reason. these are watered down for the chillun of course, they can be quite morbid unabridged. i wish i had included a photo of weisgard's illustration for "goldilocks..." he chose to illustrate the bear's house as a dollhouse (or a dollhouse view) which i think is pure genius. if you're into midcentury illustrations, then you must grab yourself a copy.

the big book of nursery tales retold by evelyn andreas

nursery treasure books, 1954, grosset & dunlap, new york

illustrated by leonard weisgard

lithographed

the big treasure book of fairy tales

this was a lucky find. it didn't look that exciting to me at first. i think the cover really doesn't do it justice. the missing dust jacket has a lot to do with that i'm sure. the cover has grown on me though. i do like the two tone printing on a colored background. this cover is brown and cream on turqoise.



when i flipped through i couldn't help but feel i had hit the jackpot. look at the blue cat. the illustrations are really something special. i immediately knew that the illustrator was art seiden. whose work i love.



unfortunately the book isn't in great condition. some of the pages are missing. it's another library discard (so prevalent at church book fairs.) this book originally belonged to alta vista school. i meant to photo the front inside cover, because the type is amazing as well. all of the book is lithographed.

the big treasure book of fairy tales retold by evelyn andreas

first edition (?), 1954, grosset & dunlap, inc., new york

illustrated by art seiden

the endpapers are my favorite. the s. s. fairyland, puss in boots, the medallions on the cabin. i could go on and on.

**i'm thinking this may not be the original cover, but a library rebind. the illustration seems off as well and is most likely not seiden's. i couldn't find any other references to this book with photos to be sure though. anyone have a copy we can compare?**