"THEY WERE SO HAPPY THEY COULD HARDLY CONTAIN THEMSELVES": DISNEY'S MINNIE MOUSE, FROM THE FIRST AMERICAN SERIES OF POP-UP BOOKS

DISNEY STUDIOS. The "Pop-Up" Minnie Mouse. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, (1933). Octavo, original pictorial paper boards. $1400.

First edition of an early American pop-up book, with three pop-ups, published by Blue Ribbon Pleasure Books, the patent-holder for "pop-ups."

"As the Depression years deepened, American book publishers sought ways to rekindle book buying… Blue Ribbon Publishing of New York found a combination that proved successful. They animated Walt Disney characters and fairy tales with pop ups," becoming "the first publisher to use the term… to describe movable illustrations" (Montanaro, xix). Produced in cooperation with paper engineer Harold Lentz, these are the first modern pop-up books produced in America, following a series of British pop-ups by Brown and Giraud in the 1930s under the imprint Bookano. This title was the second in Blue Ribbon's series of four Disney pop-ups (Mickey preceded Minnie the same year). "They have become favorites among collectors" (Munsey, 164). Montanaro, 245.

A couple unobtrusive creases to central pop-up, a few stains to interior, faint foxing to boards as often. An extremely good copy.