Virginia Lee Burton

A first printing of the classic picture book Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

• Virginia Lee Burton (American).
• Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939.
• 44 pages.
• Bound in original tan pictorial cloth, in original price-clipped red pictorial dust jacket, with color pictorial endpapers. 

Along with Sendak and McCloskey, Burton is among the handful of picture book creators whose talents were equally accomplished in both roles, as author and artist. Burton was a perfectionist obsessed with design theory, which she explored in the deceptively simple format. Mike Mulligan is acclaimed for its attention to the small details, while maintaining a clear and spirited through-line: "The wonder is that she achieved what she wanted without losing the spontaneity," noted Barbara Bader. As a result, her books are often read to tatters and not many collectible first editions of this title exist.