ANGLEWORMS ON TOAST with Original Mockup
Inscribed first printing — with publisher's mockup containing original art by Wiese, the copy of Rose Dobbs, a Coward-McCann editor.
Overall very good.
Price: $2,800.00
ANGLEWORMS ON TOAST with Original Mockup
"I was sure if Kurt Wiese did the pictures the children, when they could get hold of the book, would love it."
This first edition of ANGLEWORMS ON TOAST and its accompanying dummy demonstrate that the wheels of publication need a little greasing sometimes. The production of ANGLEWORMS was unexpectedly fraught, according to a typewritten note by Rose Dobbs included with this copy: she notes MacKinlay Kantor, who would soon be sent to London as a war correspondent, "had to be bullied into permitting the story to be published." Dobbs goes on to describe how her successful urging — playfully identified in Kantor's inscription as her "instigating" — led to the manuscript being "typed into a dummy arranged for ease in indicating rough sketches." That dummy, with Wiese's sketches, is fascinating to compare with the final printed book: a number of illustrations appear with very few changes, while others feature heavy revisions.
Although ANGLEWORMS eventually went to print with Wiese's work, Dobbs recalls that "when the dummy came back I was horrified to find that Kurt Wiese was no more a match for Thomas," the main character, than the many characters put off by his disgusting meal choices. Wiese "utterly collapsed after he did the preliminary sketches" and heard Dobbs' criticism, leading to distraught the self-portrait on the jacket's rear flap. An evocative example of the behind-the-scenes struggles of making children's books.
The Object
First edition. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc, 1942. 6.5'' x 9.5'' (book); 7.5'' x 9.5'' (dummy). Original color pictorial boards. Original unclipped ($1.50) color pictorial dust jacket. Pictorial endpapers of Thomas serving angleworms to his dog and cat. Illustrated in black and yellow (cw: some racist depictions). [32] pages. Inscribed by Kantor to Rose Dobbs "who instigated all this! / May she never have to submit / to a Diet of Worms. / With love – / Martin Luther / (alias / MacKinley Kantor) / Nov 17 1942." With one leaf of typewritten correspondence loosely laid in, mentioning how "the manuscript was typed into a dummy arranged for ease in indicating rough sketches." Obituary of Kantor taped to front flap of dust jacket. Dummy in original green cloth boards, with paper titles tipped onto front. Illustrated with original ink drawings, highlighted in green pencil. [2], 34 pages. Second blank with pencil ownership inscription of Rose Dobbs, with large ink initials AWOL and a rough drawing of a worm. Dummy boards with light edgewear, majority of top paper title perished. Dummy leaves with scattered soil. Book jacket with chipping and toning, a number of tape repairs. Binding with light chipping to spine ends, mild edgewear and toning. Leaves with occasional faint finger soil. Firm.
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