FIRST EDITION OF JULIAN WEHR'S PUSS IN BOOTS, WITH SIX LOVELY COLOR MOVABLES

WEHR, Julian. Puss in Boots. New York: Duenewald, (1944). Square octavo, spiral-bound as issued, original pictorial blue paper boards, original dust jacket. $1500.

First edition of this wonderful animated adaptation of a classic children's story, with six beautiful working color movables, four color vignettes, and two black-and-white illustrations, in scarce original dust jacket.

"During the 1940s, Julian Wehr animated a number of movable books for several American publishers. His designs were all operated by tabs, which moved various parts of the illustration. While most tabs in early movables were located at the bottom of the pages and operated by pulling down, Wehr's designs were more flexible…. In Wehr's books, the tabs are located at the bottom and the sides of the images, and are operable by moving the tabs back and forth along slits in the pages" (University of North Texas). Wehr was a "master of American book artistry and animation… Around 9,000,000 copies of [his] books were sold in the United States and Great Britain, and several titles were translated and sold in France, Germany, and Spain. Although Wehr's 'Animated Books' are now prized by rare book collectors and are attracting the attention of children's literature specialists, Wehr himself remains an obscure figure" (Middle Tennessee State University). Montanaro, 453. Contemporary owner gift inscription.

Book near-fine, with fragile and complex original movables all intact, mild toning to preliminaries, boards quite bright with only slight toning along edge of rear board. Fragile price-clipped dust jacket bright, with large chip to spine head just touching "P" in title and some wear to extremities. A lovely copy.