First edition of this bucolic romp with a twist, in which a farmer creates a clockwork double of his nephew.
Very good in very good jacket.
Price: $400.00
"Land sakes!' said Mrs. Bean, 'you'd swear the creature was alive. What won't Uncle Ben think up next!"
This tale for elementary-age children follows a traditional conceit of humanized animals reacting to events around their home, the farm – but in this case, the event is a 1930s automaton, controlled in part by a rooster. Much of the "comedy of errors" (front flap) in this book stems from the clockwork double's inability to act like his human source. A delightful and unexpected entry into the literature on robots, like E.B. White mixed with Robert Heinlein, but earlier than either of their children's books.
First printing. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. 7.75'' x 5.5''. Original blue-stamped orange cloth. In original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket. Blue pictorial endpapers, yellow topstain. Illustrated by Wiese in black and white throughout. [12], 242 pages. Light toning to gutters of endpapers, short closed tear to head of spine; jacket with moderate edgewear, subtle bits of infill, a few tape repairs to verso, shallow chipping at extremities.
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