“A MILESTONE IN SENDAK’S CAREER”: FIRST EDITION OF DEAR MILI, INSCRIBED BY SENDAK
SENDAK, Maurice. GRIMM, Wilhelm. Dear Mili. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, (1988). Oblong octavo, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. $1100.
First edition, inscribed on the half title in the year of publication: “For Kira Rose, Maurice Sendak. Sept. ’88.”
Of this recently discovered fairy-tale, The New York Times reported, “After more than 150 years, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and Cinderella will be joined by another Grimm fairy-tale character,” Mili, a little girl sent into the forest for thirty years to protect her from a terrible war. The magnificent illustrations by “the preeminent children’s book illustrator of his time [are] a milestone in Sendak’s career, the work of a master at the height of his powers.” Hanrahan A130.
Book fine, dust jacket very nearly so. A beautiful inscribed copy.