Wilkerson Books and Prints

Children’s Illustrated I

There is much conjecture nowadays about the future of “the book”.  But, as a number of studies show, reading is a genuinely tactile experience---how a book feels, looks, and even sounds as we turn a page has a great impact on how we feel about reading.  The truth is that the book is an exceptionally good piece of technology—easy to read, portable, durable, relatively inexpensive..... and no batteries are required.  And they are great gifts to share with children.  

There is a great history of wonderful illustrators of children’s books that continues to this day.  It seems the past 10 years or so have produced a number of tremendously talented children’s illustrators...  illustrators enlivening new tales as well as illustrators giving fresh insights to classic tales.  At Wilkerson and Brooks Books, we have a good selection of these contemporary children’s illustrated books...most in hard cover and dust jackets and many priced under $10.

 And we have more collectable books...you might consider a First American Edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger, published by North-South Books in 1999.  This book consists of 103 pages, has an illustrated front and back cover, and a very nice unclipped dust jacket.  Ms. Zwerger has been called by many, “one of the finest illustrators of the twentieth century” and you may need to read the story again and correlate it to Ms. Zwerger’s insightful, witty illustrations.   Our copy is priced at $30.

We also have a nice copy of Thomas Nelson Page’s Two Little Confederates illustrated by John W. Thomason, Jr., published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1932 consisting of 192 pages with a colored frontispiece and 37 black and white illustrations throughout the text.  The cover features a large circular full color paste down (same image as the frontispiece).  The book is in very good condition with a former owners signature and a 1/2” tear to the bottom of the title page. Page’s story of two Confederate youths in the Civil War was originally published in 1888, this is the edition with the fine artwork of John W. Thomason, Jr. Page’s fictional account of two ten-year-old boys' adventures and escapades while living at home in rural Virginia during the War Between the States is unusual, for its time, as the story is sympathetic to both sides of the conflict.                    Our copy is priced at $75.

And we have a very good First Edition of  Robert Louis Stevenson’s  The Black Arrow illustrated by N. C. Wyeth, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1916 consisting of 328 pages with a colored title page, 14 full page colored illustrations throughout the text, and illustrated endpapers.  The book features a color paste down front cover and gilt top leaves.  The book is in good condition with a former owners signature and slight shelf wear to the spine bottom.  There is slight foxing to two illustrations: the title page and the one on page 324. All in all, a very good copy of a scarce book with illustrations by by one of America’s greatest artists and illustrators.  
 Our copy is priced at $225.

We’ll close with this quote from the first paragraph of Alice in Wonderland...."And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures and conversations?" 

Happy Book Hunting and be careful of the rabbits you choose to run after.