Margery Williams Bianco, William Nicholson

The rarest variant of the first edition of Margery Williams Bianco's beloved children's tale, The Velveteen Rabbit.

• Margery Williams Bianco (American).
• Illustrated by William Nicholson (British).
• New York & London: George H. Doran & Heinemann, 1922.
• [8], 19, [1] pages.
• Illustrated with 4 full-page and 3 double-page color lithographs.
• First printing, US issue in a variant (likely trial) UK jacket.
• Original pictorial paper boards, original unclipped (no price) variant pictorial dust jacket (printed in single color, no logo on spine, blank rear panel), color pictorial rabbit endpapers, housed in a custom full leather clamshell box.

"The truth is I don't think I've ever found anything as purely 'moving' as the end of The Velveteen Rabbit" – David Foster Wallace

This book captures the wistful attachment to our childhood toys through the story of a stuffed rabbit that hopes the love of its owner can make it real. It is one of the great collaborations in modern children's books, with the lithographs and the text equally invoking bittersweet affection: "You were Real to the Boy [...] because he loved you." Later printings did not use lithography to produce Nicholson's drawings, making the first printing especially distinctive in the quality of its lustrous illustrations. This is a remarkable copy of one of the first modern picture books.

Scarce, in an unrestored dust jacket, and especially in this variant.