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Aesop's Fables > Books of Fables > Individual Books > 1890 to 1899

• 1890 - 1891
• 1892 - 1893
• 1894 - 1895
• 1896 - 1897
• 1898 - 1899

1890 A Fable for Critics. By James Russell Lowell. With Vignette Portraits of the Authors de Quibus Fabula Narratur. Boston: The Riverside Press: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. See 1848/76/90/91.

1890 Aesop Redivivus. By Mary Boyle. Illustrations after Kirkall. Hardbound. Printed in London. London: Field & Tuer; The Leadenhall Press; Simkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.; NY: Scribner & Welford. £45 from K Books, Allerthorpe, York, UK, through Ebay, March, '00.

This is a strange book. It is beautifully covered in half-leather with leather corners. With woodcuts derived from Kirkall, it looks at first like a serious old fable book. The couplet after the title-page gives a clue that not all is in earnest here: "Old cuts are here wedded to Fables new./But I'd skip the Morals if I were you." Once one starts reading, one discovers that it is a book mostly of fable-parodies, written surprisingly by a woman. The first fable encourages repeatedly asking a woman to marry until she gets sick of hearing the request and says yes. The second has a distraught husband saved by a beating administered to his wife by a stranger she has mistaken for her husband! Many of the fables seem to build from the illustration, like "Crossed" (74) which uses the old fable illustration of the trumpeter taken prisoner now for a quite different story. Sometimes the new fable is very well done. Thus "The Duel" (50) is an excellent development of the Aesopic fable. At the key moment, the dueling frog and mouse both turn on the approaching hawk and stab him! Similarly good is the parody of the story of two cocks fighting over a hen (39). Here she rejects the winner, saying that she does not want to mate with a prize fighter. Another good transformation is "The Pseudo Mariner" (126). Perhaps the illustration on 78 was used to show the dying man pointing to the treasure in the field. Now it introduces a sardonic turnabout: the fawning nephew who always praised his uncle's bad poetry receives his poetry books, whereas his honest nephew gets his money! Some of these fables end up seeming highly simplistic to me. The stag admiring himself in the water misses supper (18), and his fellows know why he has missed. All in all, this is a surprising little book. Like the work of George Ade, Boyle apparently uses capital letters to emphasize words. The T of C and 1-2 separated from the binding as I read this book. On 9, the author probably wants one of the two responses to come from the ink and not both from the pen. On 133 the editor mixes up the quotation marks.

1890 Fables and Folk Stories. Horace E. Scudder. Part I. Riverside Literature Series #47. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. See 1882/87/90.

1890 Fables and Folk Stories. Horace E. Scudder. Part II. Riverside Literature Series #48. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. See 1882/87/90.

1890 Fables and Folk Stories. Horace E. Scudder. Hardbound. The Riverside Literature Series, #47-48. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. See 1882/90.

1890 Fables de la Fontaine. Précédées de la vie d'Ésope, accompagnées de notes nouvelles. Illustrations par K. Girardet. (Many engravings are signed "Sargent.") Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable. Cardboard covers. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils. $15 in trade from Linda Schlafer from Margolis and Moss, Santa Fe, May, '93. Extra copy for $1 from R. Dunaway, St. Louis, March, '95.

A beautiful little volume in better condition than my two later copies of the same book. 105 small but excellent engravings besides the frontispiece. Among the best are the illustrations of Death and the woodman (57), the rats' bell (66), the lion and the fly (75), GGE (160), the bear and the gardener (243), and the fox, flies, and hedgehog (377). The notes are helpful, and the moral-bearing part of the text is italicized, as it had been in Mame editions since at least 1852. It would be fun to compare the small engravings of 1852 with those of 1890. Have I at last arrived at the first edition of this book? The edition is not mentioned in Bassy. The Dunaway copy has a blue cloth binding, a full label, a more worn cover illustration, and apparently further worn plates, e.g. on the last page of the closing AI. I will keep it in the collection just to show two books from the same printing (?) with slightly different bindings/covers.

1890 Les Fables Ésopiques de Babrios. Traduites en totalité pour la première fois par Eugène Lévèque. 21 figures hors texte. Paris: Belin Frères. $75 at Turtle Island, Aug., '93.

A beautiful book that I look forward to using extensively as we do Babrius this semester. The spine is leather, the endpapers are marbled, and the page-tops are gilt. One of the two biggest assets to me will probably turn out to be the short notes beneath each translation; I have already learned that ancient horses regularly carried no loads on their back; this knowledge helps one to understand the situation in "The Ass and the Horse." The other asset lies in the comments and lists here. Some eighty-eight pages before Babrius' text introduce the history and sources of the fable genre. The tables at the back trace the sources of LaFontaine. Ex libris Joseph M. Gleason. The book's binding has an LC number inscribed into it.

1890 The Favourite Book of Fables. With Numerous Illustrations. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. Gift of June Clinton, March, '94.  Extra copy of the 1899 printing for $10 from Blue Balloon Books, Melville, NY, through ABE, Sept., '98.

A wonderful little book of 117 fables, most notable for two features. First is its beautiful pictorial spine and covers, featuring good colored illustrations of five fables. Second is its interior mix of illustrators and illustration styles. I think I can detect four different styles and, presumably, sources. (1) The sharpest and best here is a set of mid-sized rectangular engravings by W. Small (e.g., 17 and 25). (2) The largest occupy a full page, broken in some way by the presence of text (e.g., 13 and 57). (3) Next in size comes a set of large squares (59 and 75). Either of these last two categories may be by or from Weir. The TB illustration on 73 seems to be Weir's illustration given by Hobbs on 105 with text inserted, but I find a different TB illustration in my own Weir editions! (4) The smallest rectangles seem to be a poor man's Bewick (11 and 20). I wish I could place the source of the ass's sprawl on 49 and the cover. Pages are torn at 89 and 91. A lovely little book!

1890/92 Fables de la Fontaine. Précédées de la vie d'Ésope, accompagnées de notes nouvelles. Illustrations par K. Girardet. (Many engravings are signed "Sargent.") Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable. Cardboard covers. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils. $10 from Carl Sandler Berkowitz, Jan., '90.

A beautiful little volume, inscribed in Montreal on both sides of its back cover. See the 1890 edition for comments.

1890/1901 Fables de la Fontaine. Précédées de la vie d'Ésope, accompagnées de notes nouvelles. Illustrations par K. Girardet. (Many engravings are signed "Sargent.") Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable. Cardboard covers. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils. $7.50 from Eva Arond, April, '89.

A beautiful little volume, almost identical with the 1890 and 1892 editions except for small changes on the title page.

1890? Aesop's Fables. Text based chiefly upon Croxall, La Fontaine, and L'Estrange. Illustrated by Ernest Griset. Hardbound. NY: Cassell and Company. $16.06 from Bernie Mason, Kingston, Ontario, through Ebay, March, '00.

This book is internally identical with the "Cassell and Company" volume which I have listed under 1893/93? I am no longer certain that 1893 was the original date for this edition. This book is distinguished from that one by its colorful cover, which shows a young man in red with an owl on his shoulder as he looks down on the scene of the three foxes and the grapes as Griset had illustrated it. Cataloguing the book gives me a chance now to place this edition and its reprints into some perspective with the first edition. The first edition included some 266 fables and 93 illustrations. This edition announces at the end of the editor's preface that about 130 fables (I believe it comes to 132) have been added "under the care of another Editor." These fables are in both prose and verse and come from various sources, including Gay's "The Hare and Many Friends" (221). In this edition, they begin abruptly without announcement after "The Ant and the Chrysalis," that is, on 219 with "The Bee and the Fly." Bodemann gives 1874-5 for this edition by Cassell, Petter & Galpin and speaks of 132 new prose and verse fables and of 66 new illustrations, 22 of them full-page, 22 vignettes at the beginning of fables, and 22 vignettes at the end of individual fables. I found only 39 new illustrations, but I may have overlooked some vignettes. Let me mention here those I find most impressive among these new illustrations. Some, like "The Two Lizards" (261), move a step further into the visually weird. Others may be so familiar to me from many reprints in various forms that they are now old friends. They include "The Mastiff and the Cur" (269), "The Wolf and the Shepherds" (315), "The Litigious Cats" (343), "The Blind Man and the Lame Man" (perhaps one of Griset's most reprinted illustrations, 373), "The Hermit and the Bear" (381), and "Finis" (384). Other than "J.B.R." after the editor's preface, there is no mention here of Rundell, even on the title-page.

1890? Aesop's Fables, Book 1. Joe Burton. Paperbound. $9.95 from Thomas H. Zane, Daytona Beach, FL, through EBay, Oct., '03.

Here is a happy occurrence. I could find almost no bibliographical information in this 8" x 11" pamphlet--except the name of one visual artist, "J. Burton." I could also see from the information I had that I would face a challenging task, namely to find the other booklet(s) in the series, since this is "Book 1." A routine check with earlier materials brought the happy event. It turns out that I had a similar experience in cataloguing Book 2 more than five years ago. Here the cover is red-and-gray heavy paper, as there it was green and gray. There are here 16 pages containing some twenty-seven fables. Burton's name is engraved into many of the illustrations. Griset does not seem to have any illustrations represented here, as he does in Book 2. My prizes here go to the illustrations for FWT and OR. The back cover again features the heron and some fish. Some of the pages are separating at the center. The copy is well worn. It once belonged to the Halifax Historical Society of Daytona Beach, FL.

1890? Aesop's Fables, Book 2. Illustrations by Joe Burton and Ernst Griset. Large pamphlet. £10 from Rose's, Hay-on-Wye, June, '98.

This 8" x 11" pamphlet may set a record in this collection for least publication information! We see here a very pleasing green and gray cover, with some of the gray figures faded. There are twenty-nine fables with some thirteen black-and-white illustrations by a Joe Burton (often signed "JB"). My prizes here go to the illustrations for "The Rats and the Egg" and "The Schoolmaster and His Pupil." There is also one illustration, of the monkey weighing the cats' cheese, by Ernst Griset. The back cover features the heron and some fish. Many at least of the shorter fable texts come from James.

1890? Aesops Fables (Inside: Old Fables in a New Dress). No illustrator acknowledged, but the cover illustration is signed Howard Del. Large pamphlet. NY: McLoughlin. $90 from Jim Conlin, Big Pine Key, FL, Feb., '00. Extra copy for $5 from Heartwood, Charlottesville, March, '92.

The same size as my 1880 "Aunt Louisa Series" World-Wide Fables. I am delighted now to have a good copy. There are six brilliant full-page illustrations (and some curious retellings): FS, FG (the vineyard-owning dog appears with a gun!), OF (the ox sets the dog against the upstart frogs threatening him), TMCM (does McLoughlin reprint this fancy illustration somewhere else?), DM (probably the best of the six), and " King Lion. " It is saying a lot that this book is probably worth what I paid for it! The fables are in verse. The Heartwood copy is in terrible condition: several pages are resewn, the back cover is missing, and the front cover is partial.

1890? Aesop's Fables (Inside: Old Fables in a New Dress).  Paperbound.  NY:  McLoughlin Brothers.  $.99 from Penelope Nikolsky, South Easton, MA, through eBay, Jan., '16.

1890? Aesop's Fables. Chiefly from Original Sources by the Rev. Thomas James, M.A. More than one hundred illustrations designed by John Tenniel. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons (Ariel Books: The Knickerbocker Press). (The introduction is signed 1848, but the book looks much more recent.) See 1848/90?.

1890? Aesop's Fables. Chiefly from Original Sources by the Rev. Thomas James, M.A. More than one hundred illustrations designed by John Tenniel. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. (The introduction is signed 1848, but the book looks much more recent.) See 1848/90?.

1890? Aesop's Fables. Thomas James. John Tenniel. Hardbound. NY: Grosset and Dunlap. See 1848/90?.

1890? Aesop's Fables in Words of One Syllable. By Mary Godolphin. Illustrations by Ernst Griset (not acknowledged). NY: Hurst and Co. $30 from Old Children's Books, New Orleans, Dec., '92.

I have spent lots of time with this curious, overpriced book. Its cover presents several good Aesopic images. Its text plates, including T of C, ninety-nine fables, and their pagination, are identical with those in the "1883?" edition of Godolphin by Routledge. The tailpieces offered by Routledge on 90, 95, and 174 have been dropped. The six illustrations are terribly executed on this edition's cheap paper: WL (20), OF (28), FWT (36), the nurse and the wolf (114), DM (126), and the blind and the lame (144). I have found five of the six illustrations in other Griset editions (1880, 1893, and 1895). I can find OF nowhere, if indeed that is the story which this proud frog represents. Unfortunately, this is the one illustration without title! Notice that the illustration for "The Nurse and the Wolf" contains Griset's monkey family, while Godolphin's text speaks only of humans. There is some crayoning inside the spine and on the end-papers. This edition brings to five the number of publishers I have who used Godolphin's text.

1890? Aesop's Little Fable Book. Hardbound. Edinburgh: W.P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell. $26.14 from NorWest Books, Carlisle, England, June, '05. 

The fun of this little (4¼" x 6¼") book starts with a red cloth cover imprinted with yellow, red, and green; it shows a girl punting a rowboat. The frontispiece is a strong etching of a ewe reflected in a pool. On the title page is a simpler design of children dancing. The only other illustration is an initial in the first story. The T of C shows that there are thirty-eight fables here. The spine is split between 32 and 33. Even before I checked a sample fable, I judged that these were Croxall's texts and applications. The book is inscribed by J.D. Williamson on Sept. 11, (18)93.

1890? Animal Frolics. Springfield, MA: McLoughlin Brothers. $20 at West Allis Antique Fair, Oct., '94.

A surprising find. Mother and I went to a craft show on the fair grounds. I finished early and invaded the antique fair next door. I have looked through thousands of books shown by antique dealers. I rarely find something. Books with simple animal titles or covers usually are not fable-books. So imagine my surprise as I opened this unlikely volume, large-formatted and cut to the profile of the lion walking on the cover, to find some ten fables inside! All but FS come with nice black-and-orange illustrations, unusual for the good match of the two colors' spaces by the printer. "The Fox and the Sick Lion" adds an unusual jackal as servant to the lion, talking with the fox at some distance from his master. "The Porcupine and the Snakes" shows a great snake-family dinner, complete with a high chair! "The Fox and the Crocodile" is rarely printed in books that present a few fables, for its meaning is hard to pin down. Here the mud in the alligator's skin-cracks supposedly reveals his vulgar origins. The dealer is Fr. Norb Lemke's cousin from somewhere in Iowa.

1890? Ausgewählte Fabeln und Erzählungen. Chr. F. Gellert. Mit fünf Abbildungen. Hardbound. Stuttgart: Universalbibliothek für die Jugend: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft. DM 10 from Bücherwürm, Heidelberg, August, '01. 

This book is nearly identical with a book published by the Gebrüder Kröner in Stuttgart, which I have listed under "1879?". The publisher has changed. The frontispiece illustration is lacking, apparently torn out. The other illustrations seem to me to be copied from those in the Kröner copy. This copy has a red cover with some gold lettering and black embossing. Let me repeat some of my comments made on the Kröner copy. I am surprised that this little book can accommodate fifty of Gellert's fables. The selection tends to include the same fables used elsewhere. The special gift of this little old volume lies in the illustrations. They range from over half of the page to a full page. Gellert is not often illustrated, I am finding. Illustrated here are: "Der Tanzbär" (15); "Das Heupferd oder der Grashüpfer" (27); "Der Affe" (44); and "Das Kutschpferd" (55). T of C at the front.

1890? Eastern Fables, or The Fables of Pilpay. With Illustrations. Hardbound. London: Frederick Warne and Co.. AU 9.99 from Shayla Pearl, Roleystone, Australia, through eBay, Oct., '06.

Reading this book has been enlightening. Many emphases are different from what I know in the tradition of Pilpay. Dabschelim here is an honored king. There seems to be an added second rule to Houschenk's thirteen rules: "Get rid of flatterers and railers, for they cause disturbance." The five chapters seem to work off of each of the first four rules, respectively. Dabschelim is instructed to travel to Serandib to learn the fables that will exemplify the rules. In fact I took detailed notes on this book, because it seems to represent a significant alternative version to the versions I know best. There is a simple design at the head of each fable. This book looks like a typical Warne reprint of a translation with a known author. Now who is that author? The bottom of the spine is deteriorating badly. Sold once in Perth, this copy was owned once by the Church of Christ Bible School on Lake Street; it is inscribed by a Virginia Sullivan.

1890? Fables de Florian. Lacaille, Fernand-Auguste Besnier. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie Théodore Lefèvre et Émile Guérin. €32 from Librairie Abla Attila, Saint Ouen, Paris, June, '07.

This seems to me to be a smaller later edition of what is described in Bodemann #355.1. The engravings here are frequent and helpful for understanding what is going on in Florian's fables. There is an illustration about every six pages. Metzner in Bodemann describes a contrast between the two artists. "Die beiden Zeichner ohne Angleichung der Bildkonzeption: Lacaille mit aus Untersicht gezeichneten Figuren in voller Bildhöhe; Besnier mit aus Übersicht gezeichneten, meist eine Gruppe im Bildmittelgrund formierenden Figuren, nicht in voller Bildhöhe und mit mehr Kulissen." It seems to me that in this volume the illustrations of Lacaille vastly outnumber those of Besnier. The latter's signature in the bottom right is usually cut down to a few letters.

1890? Fables de J. de la Fontaine. Décembre-Alonnier. Illustrées de 100 Gravures par J. Desandré et W.H. Freeman. Hardbound. Paris: Paul Bernardin. $65 from Des O'Keeffe, July, '11.

This little book exactly matches three others that I have, but they were all published by Bernardin-Béchet et Fils. Their dates are 1869, 1875, and 1885. Those dates have suggested the date of 1890. I presume that Bernardin and Béchet parted ways sometime shortly after the 1885 edition. The two earlier editions among those three were printed by Raçon, and the later 1885 edition by the same printer who did this present edition, Crété in Corbeil. All four of these editions seem to me to stem from the larger-format edition of 1868 (Bodemann #341,1), published by Bernardin-Béchet with no mention of a son to the latter. This latter edition has 120 engravings, while all four of the identical editions claim 100 engravings. Check those four editions for comments on the art.

1890? Fables de La Fontaine. Charles Aubertin. No illustrations. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie Classique Eugène Belin: Belin Frères. $3.50 from Antiquarium, Omaha, May, '99.

A routine, simple complete edition of La Fontaine's fables in poor to satisfactory condition. AI at the back.

1890? Fables de La Fontaine, Nouvelle Edition. Hardbound. Limoges: Martial Ardant Frères. £3.99 from Tony and Pat Toshsells, Northfleet, Kent, UK, through eBay, Sept., '05. 

This is a small (about 3¼" x 5¼") but complete book of La Fontaine's fables. Its unusual feature is its illustrations, printed with a stamp-like quality. The first of these is a full-page frontispiece printed at a ninety degree angle to the typeface on the facing title page. It pictures La Fontaine writing under a tree near some running water. Thenceforth the illustrations are two to a page, and they occur quite frequently. It is a pity that they are generally indistinct. Two of the more distinct images occur on 20bis, namely FS and "L'Enfant et le Maître d'école." I have not been able to figure out the numbering system of the images, though the numbers often match the number of a fable within a particular book. The illustrations become less frequent in some of the later books. Notice the broken stamp for one of the two illustrations on 139bis. There is an AI at the back.

1890? Fables de la Fontaine (?). (Title page and Book I are lacking; the volume begins on 29.) Paris: A. Quantin et Companie. $4.50 from Antiquarium, May, '92.

A curious book. A whole set of blank pages of different paper quality is inserted before 29 and after the close of the book, where one learns that Quantin at least printed the book. This book may represent the worst page-cutting job I have ever seen! There are thirteen full-page inserted engravings, apparently after a variety of artists including Grandville (e.g., MSA facing 57). The best of them face 131 (the eagle and the owl), 146 (the buck admiring himself), and 212 (women and a secret). There are helpful notes from Walckenaer, Chamfort, and "F.L."

1890? Fables de la Fontaine, Album No. 1. Illustrated by Louis Vagné? Canvas bound. Pont-à-Mousson: Imagerie Nouvelle: Imagerie de Pont-à-Mousson, Louis Vagné, Imp.-Édit. $85 from J and J Fine Books, Indian Land, SC, through eBay, Sept., '11.

This find complements in size and format the copy I found of Album No. 2 in 1999. It pays to keep looking! I had guessed at a date for that book of 1910. I guess 1890 for this book, even though the eBay seller, who suggests that the illustrations here are hand-colored, puts the date closer to 1850. The work here still seems to me like a poor man's Pellerin. While those twenty pages were numbered, there seems to be no numbering here. The format changed slightly from this volume to that one. "Imagerie de Pont-à-Mousson, Marcel Vagné et ses Fils, Imprimeurs-Éditeurs (Déposé)" appeared there at the bottom of each page. In this perhaps earlier work, "Imagerie de Pont-à-Mousson" appears on each page at the upper left and "Louis Vagné, Imp.-Edit" (not "Marcel Vagné") appears at the upper right. Otherwise these posters or broadsides are similar to those. GA on the cover here might make a nice contribution to a GA show. The same illustration, with the color better preserved, appears again over halfway through the book. Again here, there is no title-page. By comparison with the work of Pellerin and Quantin, the designs are simple, even rudimentary. I think Grandville's presentation of the frog in OF lies behind this work's otherwise different approach. A number of the faces here are flesh-colored in part but left white in part; the effect is disturbing. The animals here are humanized. Their animal heads identify them, but otherwise they have human bodies in human clothes. The goat in "The Lion and the Hunter" is blue! The liveliest illustration in the book may be TMCM. FG makes a strong finishing illustration about disdain. A worm did some eating at the bottom right of many of the pages.

1890? Fables de La Fontaine Enrichies de Gravures. Nouvelle Edition. Hardbound. Montreal: J.B. Rolland & Fils. $20 from Francois Cote Libraire, Feb., '03.

This is one of the legion of French editions whose title-page claims "dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable." It is an undistinguished 306-page text for students with a T of C at the end except for the illustrations that interrupt its progress. About once a book, there is a page that presents four fable images, two to a side. Unfortunately, almost all of these are so heavily inked (or the press so dulled) that it is hard to decipher what is happening in the illustration! The best of these, because the lightest in impression, may be the first on 13 and 14. There is also a full-page landscape-formatted frontispiece of La Fontaine composing by a pastoral creek. The value of this book in this collection may be to show people what Canadian pupils had at their disposal at one point in history.

1890? Fables in Verse and Other Poems Translated from the German and French by a Father and Daughter (W.P. and E.I.S.P.). Hardbound. Printed in Oxford. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. £24 from Steven Ferdinando, Somerset, May, '97.

This little book contains some thirty-nine pieces, perhaps two-thirds of which are fables. There is a T of C at the front of the book. The French or German source is indicated in parentheses under the title of each selection as it occurs in the book. Let me list several of the fables that are new to me and good. In "The Two Cocks" (8) by Tiedge, one arguing cock is asked by a wise swan whether his opponent perseveres when he is silent. In "The Young Crocodile and the Lizard" (12) the captured lizard pleads for mercy because of family ties with the crocodile, but then refuses to enter the water and so seals his doom. In "The Colt" the protagonist looks forward to the trappings of reins and saddle until he learns by experience that they really are means of enslavement (47). In "The Fox and the Bear" (79) from Viennet, the former is the latter's prisoner and soon-to-be supper. Normal flattery does not work. At last the fox notices that the bear has lost one eye, and so he begins a long speech praising Hannibal, the Cyclops, and anybody else who had just one eye. The bear swears then that he would never harm so dear a friend. If all else fails, praise a tyrant's defects! There are pleasant little engravings, one of the best of which is TB (87). The spine is weak and separating. I found this book on a visit with June Clinton, who wanted me to meet her bookseller friend. I just met Steven again five years later at a Russell Hotel booksellers' fair.

1890? Fables of Aesop and Others with Instructive Applications. By Samuel Croxall and other moralists. Illustrated by One Hundred and Thirty Engravings. NY: James Miller. $24 at Spivey's, Kansas City, May, '93.

See my notes on the earlier copy of this book (1865). 248 fables in a lovely 7" by 4.5" book with embossed green covers and a gold-embossed spine. Advertisements at the front and back for all sorts of things, including a book on how to get a farm! Miller here has a different address than in 1865?, the book has different colored covers, none of which here is embossed, the advertisements are different, and the paper is thinner.

1890? Fables of La Fontaine with Moving Pictures. Canvas binding. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. AUD 26 from zimzamboom, UK, through eBay, Sept., '07.

This fragile treasure is disintegrating as I write! It is a lovely find. It includes six "operable" pictures with a tab at the bottom to make the character(s) move. FS still operates perfectly and is the most complex of the pictures: the fox bows his head over his carafe, the stork bows hers over her pilsener glass, and the servant frog bows his over his soup dish. WL likewise is in good condition: the two characters bow to each other. The heads of both mice move as they run in TMCM. FC is also among the best of the group: the fox bows to the nodding crow and also extends his hand to catch the cheese soon to fall from the crow's mouth. Alas, the hare has lost his head in TH, but the picture does not make much sense anyway: the tortoise is waving to him as he rushes by. The grasshopper in GA makes a lovely movement with one arm while the other arm holds her guitar. This movement is particularly nice, since the arm extends through its own slot in the picture. I am not surprised to find in the lower right corner of this last picture "Printed in Bavaria." This book shows great German toy ingenuity at work! The canvas binding has no connection with the pages, and the pages are separate from each other. Would its creators have thought that this book would last so long?

1890? Fünfzig Fabeln für Kinder. Von Wilhelm Hey. Mit 8 Farbdruckbildern nach Aquarellen von Prof. Eugen Klimsch und 60 Textabbildungen von W. Schäfer und Ch. Votteler. Vierte Auflage. Stuttgart: Verlag von Wilhelm Effenberger. $65 from Judy Gutterman, April, '94.

A beautiful book, particularly for the eight strong colored illustrations. For these eight there is just one fable, text and illustration, on a page. "Der Bär" (facing 24) is loose. My favorite among the colored illustrations is the snowman on 17. Apparently all the fables from the original 1836 edition are here, including those (unillustrated and apparently never about animals) of the appendix. Hobbs writes well of Hey on 90 that he is "sweetening the pill to such an extent that the old fable types have disappeared." Though Speckter is the most famous illustrator of Hey, I like this book particularly. A happy find!

1890? Fünfzig Fabeln für Kinder. Wilhelm Hey. Mit 8 Farbdruckbildern nach Aquarellen von Prof. Eugen Klimsch; 60 Textabbildungen von W. Schäfer und Ch. Votteler. Sechste Auflage. Hardbound. Stuttgart: Loewes Verlag Ferdinand Carl. $30 from Brattle Books, Boston, April, '05. 

This book seems to be identical--except that it comes from a different publisher--with a beautiful book which I have listed under "!890?" from the Wilhelm Effenberger Verlag in Stuttgart. This copy is lacking the colored illustration of the snowman that should be at 17. The title-page announces eight colored pictures, and there are only seven here. The dealer takes notice: "7 plates and cover; lacks Schneemann." As I mentioned a propos of the Effenberger edition, the eight colored illustrations are particularly well done. For these eight there is just one fable, text and illustration, on a page. Apparently all the fables from the original 1836 edition are here, including those--unillustrated and apparently never about animals--of the appendix. Hobbs writes well of Hey on 90 that he is "sweetening the pill to such an extent that the old fable types have disappeared." Though Speckter is the most famous illustrator of Hey, I like this book particularly. This copy is inscribed in Braunschweig, apparently in 1905. "Der Bär" (facing 24) is loose here, just as it was there. This illustration provides the detail section that appears on the cover: the bear approaches the organ grinder. The spine is breaking down in this copy.

1890? Hundert Äsop'sche Fabeln für die Jugend. Mit vier Bildern in Farbendruck nach Aquarellen von Walter Zweigle. Hardbound. Stuttgart: Verlag von Wilhelm Nitzschke. DM 10 from Antiquariat Paul Hennings, Hamburg, July, '98. 

Neu bearbeitet und mit moralischen Anmerkungen versehen. Not in Bodemann. Sixty-six pages plus four inserted water-color illustrations. T of C at the beginning notes the four fables that have the colored illustrations. They can be at some remove from their stories, and so I note their places here: WC is the frontispiece; "Eagle and Jackdaw" is at 16, "Lion and Fox" at 38, and TB at 48 and on the cover too. "The Lion and Fox" is a curious fable with a curious moral. The fox gets only meager portions of their common kills and announces that he is leaving the lion's service. He makes his first attempt to get some sheep on his own and is caught and killed. The moral is "Better to suffer injustice than to commit it." Gothic script throughout. This copy is very fragile. Might this book be a first edition? It does not note an edition on the title-page. I have the sixth edition, which I have listed under "1920?". That book notes its edition on the title-page.

1890? Imagerie Artistique: 20 Fables de La Fontaine II. No editor named. Various painters, not acknowledged. Oversized, almost poster-sized. Paris: Ancienne Maison Quantin. $70 from Antiquariaat Bert Hagen, Amsterdam, Dec., '88. Extra copy without covers, gift of Dan Gleason, Dundee Books, May, '94.

A beautiful collection aptly named. The format has square text inserted in a large picture, which often includes two phases or two scenes, human and fabulous. Do not miss the lovely front cover on the good copy. The best illustrations are of TT; 2P; FS; "The Two Rats, the Fox, and the Egg"; and "The Thieves and the Ass." The publisher's title is slightly different in the two copies I have. The two copies also offer a good contrast in the color of the paper and illustration.

1890? Jolly Comrades. Canvas-bound. Chicago: M.A. Donohue and Company. $10.00 from Ichabod's, Denver, April, '99.

There are three fables here in an unpaginated collection of various children's materials. After a colored frontispiece of three children, one riding a dog, there are black-and-white illustrations. The telling by Ida Fay is unusual in that a class of students discusses the picture of the bear and two men before little Mary who knows the Aesopic story tells it. Emily Carter does a similar retelling of SW, in which two boys on the way to school meet a man beating a horse--until a young man shows him how to treat the horse kindly. There is a new ending to "The Donkey, the Fox and the Lion." The donkey in the pit brays so loud that hunters come, save him, and kill both the lion and the fox! The back cover depicts a strange scene of a native American apparently rising out of water to gaze at bathing women! This canvas-bound book is in poor condition.

1890? Les plus belles Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrated by Gustave Fraipont et al. Hardbound. Paris: Bibliothèque de la Jeunesse et de l'Enfance: L. Martinet: Librairies-Imprimeries Réunies. $40 from Powell's, Portland, August, '08. Extra copy for $26.50 from William Bucklin, Washington Depot, CT, through Ebay, Feb., '03.

Bodemann 368.2. This book is closest to La Fontaine: Fables Choisies (Bodemann 368.3), which I have listed under "1900?" Other members of the family include the two volumes of Imagerie Artistique (Bodemann 368.1), which I guess to have come out ten years earlier (Bodemann has them under "1888-1890?"), and Fables Choisies ("1910?"). This book shares with 368.3 the facts that they have no texts and are not identical with the larger poster-like pictures of 368.1 and the posters that correspond with 368.1. This volume differs in that it has only fourteen illustrations, whereas 368.3 has twenty-eight. Among the best illustrations here may be FG, OR, and "Le Charretier Embourbé." There is an oval presentation of the FG illustration on the cover. 9¾" x 12¾". This was a very lucky find on Ebay! And then an even luckier find at Powell's!

1890? Little Folks Delight. Tiny Tales Series. NY: McLoughlin Bros. $15 from Gerrie's Collectables, Etc, San Juan Bautista, CA, March, '97.

Here is a simple 6½" x 8½" children's book in pictorial boards with a girl washing doll's clothes on the front cover and children rolling a huge ball of snow on the back. Inside is a typical collection of material for children. The last three pages present TMCM with a few unusual features. First, it has the unusual English title of "The City Rat and the Country Rat," and the version puts down mere mice. Secondly, there is no country meal. As in La Fontaine, the version starts with an invitation from the city rat. It is thus strange that the full-page illustration shows two rats out in the country! Finally, in the quick departure of the country rat after one attack of dogs and people together, there is no invitation, as there is in La Fontaine, for the city rat to visit in the country. Neither the title-page nor the cover puts an apostrophe into "folks." The story's inclusion here is a sign of how much it was accepted as standard children's literature.

1890? Marcus Ward's Fable Picture Book Containing Twenty-Four Pictures, in Colors, of Animals and Their Masters With the Fables from Aesop. Told in Verse by (J.) Hain Friswell. Hardbound. Printed in Belfast. London: Marcus Ward & Co. $56.03 from Melanie Gibson, Fredericksburg, VA through Ebay, Feb., '00.

TC at the beginning. Oblong (landscape) format, 11½" x 8". Twenty-four fables, presented in verse by Hain, with a simple full page of illustration for each in vivid color. The milkmaid here drops a basket of eggs. Among the best illustrations is DLS. "The Conceited Stag" is presented as conceited both in text and picture. Typical and lovely is the illustration for "The Monkey and Cats." Beautiful gilt cover, including four medallions depicting fables in the corners. The pages have separated from the binding. I am surprised that I had not seen either this book before or references to it. I am very happy to have found a copy of it!

1890? Marcus Ward's Picture-Fables from Aesop in Four Books: The Jackdaw and Peacock and Other Fables. J. Hain Friswell. Canvas-bound pamphlet. London/Belfast: Marcus Ward & Co. £ 20 from Corbus Books, Winslow, at a Great Russell Book Fair, London, August, ‘01.

This is one landscape-formatted booklet from a set of four. A further sub-title on the cover adds: "From Aesop. Told anew in verse and figured in colors." There are six fables, recounted in verse by J. Hain Friswell. Each fable gets one full-page illustration, with the last "The Basket of Eggs" dividing its page into two panels. Marcus Ward & Company existed apparently from 1867 through 1899. The colors here are strong and flat; the figures lack depth. Perhaps the best of the illustrations is DS. The cover is in the process of being separated from the rest of the booklet. Is the canvas around the binding here something put on the booklet by the publisher, or was it added later by some owner? Now I need to find the other three booklets in the series!

1890? Oeuvres de Florian: Les Fables. Illustrées d'un portrait de Florian par Queverdo, de 80 dessins de Granville [sic], de 40 culs-de-lampe d'après une édition populaire du XVIIIIe siècle. Gravures de Demoulin. Hardbound. Edité spécialement pour les Magasins du Bon Marché. FFR 80 from Patrick Campos, Bouquiniste, Quai Montebello, Paris, August, ‘01.

I do not have a complete set of the Grandville illustrations for Florian's 110 poems. In the meantime, the selection here is fine, and the printing is fair. It is nice to encounter illustrations I have already enjoyed elsewhere. I now recognize where some fable-cards got their designs! Florian's fables are divided into the usual five books--three introduced with an engraving--of twenty-two fables apiece. Somehow there seem to be 111 fables here rather than 110. The eighteenth-century tailpieces are small and less detailed than the Grandville illustrations, but nonetheless charming. One of my favorite illustrations and fables this time through has been "Le Chien et le Chat" (18). A dog tries to return to the house in which he was born and from which he was sold. He is ousted and dragged back to his new home, and an old cat asks "Did you think, you poor fool, that people love us for our own sake?" A favorite illustration of mine is for "The Flying Fish" (187). Fables make up the first 188 pages here. There is an AI of fables at the end of this whole book. The book also contains Florian's theatrical and pastoral work, as well as his stories and poems.

1890? Oeuvres de Florian: Les Fables. Illustrées d'un portrait de Florian par Queverdo, de 80 dessins de Granville [sic], de 40 culs-de-lampe d'après une édition populaire du XVIIIIe siècle. Gravures de Demoulin. Hardbound. Paris: Collection des Grands Classiques Français et Étrangers. $19.99 from Bob Osser, Milton, Ontario, through eBay, Oct., '07.  Extra copy for $5 from Donald Ridley, South Portland, Maine, through eBay, May, '04. 

This book is identical with another I have listed under the same date but "edité spécialement pour les Magasins du Bon Marché." Perhaps the same publisher made the book for both agencies. Let me repeat some of my comments about that book. The selection of Grandville illustrations here is fine, and the printing is fair. It is nice to encounter illustrations I have already enjoyed elsewhere. I now recognize where some fable-cards got their designs! Florian's fables are divided into the usual five books--three introduced with an engraving--of twenty-two fables apiece. Somehow there seem to be 111 fables here rather than 110. The eighteenth-century tailpieces are small and less detailed than the Grandville illustrations, but nonetheless charming. One of my favorite illustrations and fables this time through has been "Le Chien et le Chat" (18). A dog tries to return to the house in which he was born and from which he was sold. He is ousted and dragged back to his new home, and an old cat asks "Did you think, you poor fool, that people love us for our own sake?" A favorite illustration of mine is for "The Flying Fish" (187). Fables make up the first 188 pages here. There is an AI of fables at the end of this whole book. The book also contains Florian's theatrical and pastoral work, as well as his stories and poems.

1890? Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque. Baltimore: The Baltimore Publishing Co. See 1860/90?.

1890? Pleasant Stories for My Children. No author or illustrator acknowledged. NY: Blakeman and Mason. $8 at Book Cellar, Bethesda, Sept., '91.

LM opens a collection of eight stories in an undersized book. The closing story is labelled out of nowhere "Story XXIV"! The lion puts his paw by accident onto the mouse, who makes only a squeak and no plea. The lion is good-hearted. Francis and Sophia act it out. Mother draws and subverts the moral: Be kind to the little, including animals. These will not return the favor, but the real reward is knowing that God is pleased and we were merciful!

1890? Pretty Story Book.  Illustrations by Caldecott.  Hardbound.  NY: McLoughlin.  $15 from Clarks Run Antiques, Utica, Illinois, Sept., '23.

1890? Select Fables from La Fontaine. Adapted from the Translation of Elizur Wright for the Use of the Young. Illustrated by M.B. de Monvel. London and NY: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. See 1871/90?.

1890? The Book of Fables: Containing Aesop's Fables, Complete, with text based upon Croxall, La Fontaine and L'Estrange. With Copious Additions from other Modern Authors. Based upon Croxall, La Fontaine, and L'Estrange. Profusely Illustrated by Ernest Griset. Hardbound. NY: Hurst and Co. $6 from Pat Sheldon Books, Salem, NY, through Bibliofind, May, '97.

This book is like two others that I have. Its contents are very much like those in the Arlington Edition put out by Hurst and listed under "1899?" There is no indication of an Arlington Edition here. It is exactly like a Hurst Edition (also not specified as Arlington) under "1900?" in its claims, but this book, unlike that one, delivers on the claim to include illustrations. Thus there are thirty-nine of Griset's illustrations listed here just after the preface. The preface does not have a signature, nor is Rundell (the editor of the work, first published in 1869) ever mentioned. As is typical for smaller-format reprints of the Rundell/Griset work after the third edition (1874-5?), there is on 141 an announcement of "Later Fables," namely those which did not appear in the first two editions. This book has a special feature that may help in its dating. The last page before several blanks is an advertisement for Sohmer pianos, which are said to have won prizes in 1876, 1881, and 1882. For how many years would a manufacturer make that claim? The book has held together well and is still unusually sturdy. Many illustrations are well printed, but many also are depressingly dark.

1890? The Book of Fables Chiefly from Aesop. (Title page missing.) (Chosen and phrased by Horace E. Scudder. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company/Cambridge: Riverside Press.) See 1882/1890?.

1890? The Discontented Frogs.  Paperbound.  NY: McLoughlin Brothers.  $90 from Brattle Books, Boston, June, '16.

1890? The Fables of La Fontaine.  Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury.  With illustrations by Gustave Doré.  Hardbound.  NY: Cassell Publishing Company.  $50 from Exquisite Findings through eBay, July, '14. 

1890? The Fairy Godmother or the Adventures of Prince Eigenwillig. A Tale for Youth Illustrating the Use of Discipline. The Aesop Library. By William Churne. NY: George A. Leavitt. $10 at Kelmscott, Baltimore, May, '92.

The ultimate in tangential books for my collection. I had seen this book on several visits to Kelmscott and probably opened it the first two or three times. After a number of perusings (but not readings) I have found nothing here that has anything to do with Aesop, but the book is nevertheless in the "Aesop Library." Actually, the pictures and names in the book suggest to me that it might be fun....

1890? Three Hundred Aesop's Fables. Literally translated from the Greek by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend. With fifty illustrations by Harrison Weir. London and NY: George Routledge and Sons. See 1885?/90?.

1890?/1989 Animal Frolics. Pamphlet reproduction. Printed in Hong Kong. NY: Merrimack Publishing Corporation. Gift of Kathryn Thomas, May, '01.

"Our Version of the Antique" appears on the back cover. I have a copy of the "antique," done by McLoughlin Brothers. See my comments there, under "1890?" This facsimile follows the original version scrupulously, right down to the cut-out profile of the pamphlet that follows the outline of the lion-gentleman with a cane on the cover. The stiff card stock used here is perfect for this pamphlet. What a lovely gift!

1891 A Child's Version of Aesop's Fables. With a supplement containing fables from La Fontaine and Krilof. J.H. Stickney. Boston: Ginn and Co. $1.50 from Constant Reader, '85(?). Extra copy for which Clare Leeper paid $10, July, '96.

A pleasant little book, well used. Various people worked on the text, and the illustrations seem to be from Doré, Weir, and a certain F. Myrick (?). I enjoy several, e.g., FS (46).

1891 A Fable for Critics. By James Russell Lowell. With Vignette Portraits of the Authors de Quibus Fabula Narratur. Boston: The Riverside Press: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. See 1848/76/90/91.

1891 Fables Causides De La Fontaine En Bers Gascouns.  Corrigée par l'Abbe Foix.  Nouvelle Édition Corrigée.  Paperbound.  Dax, France: Imprimerie & Lithographie Hazael Labeque.  $50 from hasgard33, Angais, France, through Ebay, March, '19.

1891 Old Rough the Miser: A Fable for Children.  Lily F. Wesselhoeft.  Illustrated by J.F. Goodridge.  Hardbound.  Boston: Roberts Brothers.  $18.75 from Circle City Books, Tucson, through abe, July, '14.  

1891 The Favourite Book of Fables, With Numerous Illustrations. Harrison Weir (?) et al. Hardbound. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. $4.99 from Larry Rakow, Wonderland Books, Cleveland Heights, OH, through eBay, Dec., '03.

This book is identical with the 1890 (first?) edition, except for the changed date on the title-page. I am especially delighted to find it because my copy of the 1890 edition has two torn pages, and this copy is in good condition. I will include most of my comments from there. A wonderful little book of 117 fables, most notable for two features. First is its beautiful pictorial spine and covers, featuring good colored illustrations of five fables. Second is its interior mix of illustrators and illustration styles. I think I can detect four different styles and, presumably, sources. (1) The sharpest and best here is a set of mid-sized rectangular engravings by W. Small (e.g., 17 and 25). (2) The largest occupy a full page, broken in some way by the presence of text (e.g., 13 and 57). (3) Next in size comes a set of large squares (59 and 75). Either of these last two categories may be by or from Weir. The TB illustration on 73 seems to be Weir's illustration given by Hobbs on 105 with text inserted, but I find a different TB illustration in my own Weir editions! (4) The smallest rectangles seem to be a poor man's Bewick (11 and 20). I wish I could place the source of the ass's sprawl on 49 and the cover. A lovely little book!

1891 XIX Favole (dal Lafontaine).  Domenico Guerrini.  Signed by Domenico Guerrini.  Pamphlet.  Milan: Domenico Guerrini.  $28 from Antichita de Carta, Cotignola, Ravenna, Italy, through Ebay, April, '20.

1891/95 Introductory Language Work. Alonzo Reed. NY: Maynard, Merrill, and Co. $2.50 from Tiber Book Shop, Baltimore, May, '92.

Formerly the property of the Andora, PA, school board. Ten fables help this grammar to do its work. They are the most popular kind of story for the book's exercises. Those included are AD (31-4); GA (127-33); "The Hunter and the Woodcutter" (199); "The Boar" (200); TH (218); MSA (219-20); "Dandelion" (223); "Two Wise Goats" (249); LM (251); and SW (253).

1891? Basni. Ivan Andreevich Krylov. Hardbound. $60 from Victor Romanchenko at Rubux Books, Sumy, Ukraine, through eBay, Dec., '06.

Here is a curious old book. This old book seems to lack a title-page. The earliest pages in the book show several portraits of Krylov and his tomb in St. Petersburg. There are some illustrations in the book, and their quality seems to me to be high. They seem to be done by an artist with the initials "A.K." I cannot make out his last name. Among the good illustrations are these: FC (2); "Monkey and Spectacles" (22); CJ (55); FG (169): "The Bear Learning to Bend Branches" (176); and "The Boar Rooting at the Base of a Tree" (189). Bibliographers seem to suggest that the publication date is between 1891 and 1920. There is a curious business of pasting over the cloth cover and spine. Would the name have appeared on the spine at one time? And is that a hand-written title on the present tan cloth cover? There are 271 pages. The two items at the back seem to be a chronography of Krylov and his works, and then an AI of his fables here.

1891? Imagerie Artistique: 20 Fables de La Fontaine.  H. Vogel, Gaston Gélibert, Mangonot, Godefroy, Etienne-Maurice-Firmin Bouisset,  (Anatole Paul?) Ray, Job (=Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Breville), and Gustave Fraipont.  Canvas bound.  Paris: Ancienne Maison Quantin.  400 Francs from D.V.F. Chanut, Paris, by mail, April, '00. 

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1892 A Beauty of Thebes and Other Verses. John Goadby Gregory. NA. Hardbound. Milwaukee: Printed for the Author. $5 from Milwaukee Public Library, June, '09.

Gregory's verses reflect Aesop at several points. "The Clay God" is Aesop's fable. The moral may not be the one Aesop had in mind:

The world is like the heathen's god.
Petition it in humble strain,
And you may supplicate in vain.
But raise a strong right arm and strike,
And you can have whate'er you like.

"From Aesop" (28) has four good verse renditions of Aesop's fables. The first is "The Stag at the Pool." The moral: "Beauty is made to be admired;/But use is more to be desired." CJ finishes nicely: "The world's way is to underrate/What it can not appreciate." A line design of Walter Crane's sets up the third rendition, "Juno and the Peacock." The fourth has the two thirsty frogs pondering over jumping into a well. "Reader, in mind the moral keep,/Look--always look!--before you leap." The title-poem is last in this collection. It is a wistful, meditative look at a beautiful person who died 3000 years ago.

1892 Aesop's Fables. Edited by Edward Garrett. With one hundred illustrations by J. Wolf, J.B. Zwecker, and T. Dalziel. Inscribed 1894. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott. $15 from Jane Choras at Cambridge, April, '89.

Beautiful leather covers and good illustrations. Surprisingly large margins; was the text perhaps set up for a smaller, cheaper edition? The best illustrations are of the horse and lion (75), the fox and goat (81), DLS (97), WC (108), and the eagle and crow (119).

1892 Aesop's Fables. Young Folk's Library of Choice Literature, Volume I. First Grade. Edited by Mara L. Pratt. Boston: Educational Publishing Company. $6 at Valencia Books, San Francisco, Jan., '91.

Standard except for the illustration and event finishing the FG on 10: the grapes smile and laugh! "The Bull and the Gnat" becomes "The Horse and the Fly." Helpful introduction: both boys and girls like Aesop; fables with their dialogue invite kids' expression. The same author and publisher reproduce the first nine of these thirty-three stories in 1894 as one of four Aesop volumes for $.05 apiece. I mistook this volume for that one. A real find in good condition! Note the distinctly different way of punctuating interrupted quotations.

1892 Aesop's Fables: A New Revised Version From Original Sources. With Upwards of 200 Illustrations by Harrison Wier (sic), John Tenniel, Ernest Griset and Others. No editor acknowledged. Inscribed in 1892. NY: The Phoenix Publishing Company. $9.00 at Scavengers of Georgetown, Dec., '91.

This edition reproduces the 1884 Allison edition, which already had a colorful history. See my extensive notes on it. The paper here is cheaper and the illustrations therefore poorer. The publisher and date of publication are different. The illustration of the lion in love facing the "Life of Aesop" on 1 is omitted.

1892 Aesop's Fables, That is to say Some of Them Rewritten in Modern Way (cover: Illustrated Selections from Aesop's Fables Up to Date). With illustrations to attract and embellished with hints about Pond's Extract. Paperbound. NY:Pond's Extract Company. $5.50 from Jerry Adams, Temple, TX, through eBay, March, '05. 

This is a twenty-four page advertising pamphlet. The title-page includes this comment: "PRICE: Nothing; if that's too much to pay,. .Say so, we'll send and take it away." The humor continues in the fables. They are told and illustrated in modern ways; I would put them somewhere between Bierce and Ade. The first plays on the word "pitcher" in its telling and illustration for CP. Though shaped like a water-pitcher, this character is also a "pitcher" for a baseball team. In "Venus and the Cat," Venus congratulates the mouse-fearing girl on being a true girl. In GA, the grasshopper is told as usual that he should dance in winter. He does! He thanks the ant for the advice, changes his name, and soon accumulates a fortune on the dancing stage. The rooster in CJ proclaims that he wants a barleycorn before all the jewels in the world, and a clever rooster immediately takes him up on the deal. He offers him a promissory note, breaks the ring and gets a liberal reward from the hen that lost it, pawns the stone and makes enough to set up his own harem. The boy to be saved by the pedant cries out "O, sir, save me now, if you won't read me the lecture afterwards" (17). The wolf wanting to disguise himself in "sheep-skin" goes to a neighboring college to get one--a diploma, that is. Putting it on, he "passed himself off as a genuine mutton-head." The cover artist knows a little Greek--enough to guess that Aesop in Greek is ΗΣΩΠΟΣ; in reality his name is ΑΙΣΩΠΟΣ.

1892 Deux Cents Fables Choisies d'Ésope avec Notes et Lexique. J. Lemoine. Signed by Lemoine. Paperbound. Halle s/ Saale: Imprimerie de l'Orphelinat. $22.46 from K.H.T. Webrairie, Namur, Belgium, through abe, August, '06.

"Édition Classique." This paperbound textbook presents two-hundred fables on 102 pages. The organization comes from the book's rapport with "Les Éléments de Grammaire Grecque" by M.M. Roersch et Thomas. The back cover has an advertisement for the book. Thus the first fables stand under a heading "Premiere déclinaison," and the last fables are under headings dealing with various uses of Greek's cases. The fables include a reference to Halm's numbering system. Immediately following the fables are 92 pages of a Greek-to-French dictionary. I cannot find a T of C, but there is, on 185-86, a list of Halm's numbers for the fables included here. There is finally a list of fifty fables, described as "des Éditions ordinaires," with a page number for the corresponding fable in this edition. The preface points out that this book takes the fifty traditional fables and adds one-hundred-and-fifty to them. Completely left out have been those fables which lack the respect due to children and those which are written in Ionic dialect and so are not easy for beginners to comprehend. Were it not clear, the preface shows clearly that this is a book meant for classroom use. The text used for the fables is a modification of Halm. As the preface indicates, Halm first published his edition in 1852. The latest printing of Halm of which Lemoine is aware took place in 1889.

1892 Die Fabeln des Erasmus Alberus: Abdruck der Ausgabe von 1550 mit den Abweichungen der ursprünglichen Fassung. Herausgegeben von Wilhelm Braune. Paperbound. Halle a.S.: Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts #104-7: Verlag von Max Niemeyer. DM 20 from Antiquariat Carl Wegner, Berlin, August, '97.

This little (about 4¾" x 7") paperbound book is in remarkably good condition. It is the one book Bodemann cites as a reference for the work of Erasmus Alberus in Fabula Docet (#9). It contains LXXII pages of introductory material: Vorwort, Einleitung, Die Alten Ausgaben der Fabeln, Der Text des Neudrucks, Die Quellen der Fabeln, Zur Würdigung der Fabeldichtung des Alberus, and Die Ortsangaben bei Alberus. Then follow Alberus' own introductory materials and his forty-nine numbered fables on some 216 pages. The introductory materials include a title-page, Vorrede, T of C, and life of Aesop. There are copious footnotes to the fable texts. A number of them seem to indicate textual variations. I read Alberus' first fable, CJ. It is placed "bey Dantzig." Alberus moralizes the story quite simply: The jewel is art. The rooster is crazy people who live only for eating and drinking. There is no identification of the jewel with this book. Jewel or not, I feel very lucky to have come across this little book!

1892 Die Fabeln des Erasmus Alberus: Abdruck der Ausgabe von 1550 mit den Abweichungen der ursprünglichen Fassung.  Herausgegeben von Wilhelm Braune.  Paperbound.  Tübingen: Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts #104-7: Verlag von Max Niemeyer.  €10 from Antiquariat Bert Wawrzinek, Dresden, July, '24.

1892 Die Fabeln des Erasmus Alberus: Abdruck der Ausgabe von 1550 mit den Abweichungen der ursprünglichen Fassung. Herausgegeben von Wilhelm Braune. Paperbound. Halle a.S.: Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts #104-7: Verlag von Max Niemeyer. €15 from Antiquariat Müller & Gräff, Stuttgart, August, '09.

This is a hardbound version of a little (about 4¾" x 7") paperbound book already in the collection. The hardbound version makes it a little more difficult to find some of the information supplied on the cover of the paperbound version, namely that this book belongs to a series: Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts #104-7. I will include comments I made on that version, but only after comments I created before I realized that I already had a copy. The accomplishment of this book is to reproduce carefully the 1550 edition of Alberus' verse fables. This is a key edition, because a later second edition followed Alberus' death in 1553. Earlier published groups of fables were smaller; he seems to refer to them as the work of his youth. The heart of this book consists of Alberus' forty-nine fables, listed in a "Register" with page numbers on 6-7. In the 72 pages leading up to that point, one finds some very helpful scholarship, including careful assessment of Alberus' sources. The main source turns out to be not Steinhöwel but rather a long-titled edition from sometime before 1520. Names to recognize in that title include Guilielmus Goudanus, Hadrianus Barlandus, and Erasmus Roterodamus. I tried Alberus' first fable, CJ, and found it quite traditional. I also read Fable 33 about the ass who found a lion-skin and thought himself pope. This is good reformation propaganda. Alberus was of course a fervent disciple of Martin Luther. In fact, this fable praises Luther for revealing the lion-skin that the poe as ass had been wearing. The formal title of Alberus' 1550 book starts "Das Buch von der Tugend und Weisheit." The collection seems to go under the title "Die Fabeln Esopi." A lovely little find! This is the one book Bodemann cites as a reference for the work of Erasmus Alberus in "Fabula Docet" (#9). It contains LXXII pages of introductory material: Vorwort, Einleitung, Die Alten Ausgaben der Fabeln, Der Text des Neudrucks, Die Quellen der Fabeln, Zur Würdigung der Fabeldichtung des Alberus, and Die Ortsangaben bei Alberus. Then follow Alberus' own introductory materials and his forty-nine numbered fables on some 216 pages. The introductory materials include a title-page, Vorrede, T of C, and life of Aesop. There are copious footnotes to the fable texts. A number of them seem to indicate textual variations. Alberus' first fable, CJ, is placed "bey Dantzig." Alberus moralizes the story quite simply: The jewel is art. The rooster is crazy people who live only for eating and drinking. There is no identification of the jewel with this book. Jewel or not, I feel very lucky to have come across this little book! 

1892 Easy Words Story Book. Edited by Uncle Herbert. Apparently first edition. Hardbound. Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co. $10 from Walk a Crooked Mile Books, Philadelphia, PA, Jan., '02.

This is an unpaginated children's book 7" x 9". It contains several fables: OF (#16); "The Hare and the Frogs" (#20); and DS (#25). The frog in OF puffs so well that he is "nearly as big as a bull." He bursts so completely that they are able to find no scraps of him! Though the illustration of "The Hare and the Frogs" is for the usual fable by this name, the text is really a version of TH, in which the hare sleeps twice in his race with a frog. I think the writer and editor here may not have worked too closely together! In DS, "the flow of the water made the shadow of the meat look much larger than the real piece he carried." A young writer did plenty of practice on the open spaces of many of the pages here. He or she also numbered the stories. The book is in poor condition. The binding is so loose that the front cover is almost severed. The colored cover shows a young woman teaching her dog and dolls. Inscribed at Christmas, 1894.

1892 Fables Choisies de La Fontaine. With biographical sketch of the author and explanatory notes in English by Mme. Berthe Beck. NY: William R. Jenkins Co. $10 at Imagination Books, Silver Spring, Oct., '91.

There are fifty fables with helpful notes in this small school reader. T of C at the end. The seller, Tom Hopper, noted wistfully that he would like to learn French and Latin to read books like these.

1892 Fables de la Fontaine. Précédées de la vie d'Ésope, accompagnées de notes nouvelles. Illustrations par K. Girardet. (Many engravings are signed "Sargent.") Nouvelle édition, dans laquelle on aperçoit d'un coup d'oeil la moralité de la fable. Cardboard covers. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils. See 1890/92.

1892 Fables de la Fontaine. Précédées de la vie d'Ésope, accompagnées de notes nouvelles. Illustrations par K. Girardet. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils. See 1890/92.

1892 Krilov's Fables (Hebrew). Ivan Krilov. Translated by M. Reichersohn. Hardbound. Vilna: $19.49 from Dr. Meir Barnea, St. Paul through Ebay, Feb., '99.

This is a Hebrew translation of Krilov's fables. The Krilov section is 410 pages long and is bound together with William Tell (an additional 138 pages), translated into Hebrew by Y. Radner and published in 1882. The volume is solid and has a fairly good binding; the quality of paper in the Krilov section is good, though the Tell section has lower quality paper. 6"x4.5". Of course, the book starts from what we would call the back. It has a Russian title-page facing its Hebrew title-page. My first Hebrew fables, and certainly an unexpected combination!

1892/1912 Aesop's Fables. Volume I. Edited by Mara L. Pratt. Revised edition. Boston: Educational Publishing Company. $3.60 from Ralph Casperson, Niles, May, '95.

The revised edition of the 1892 edition of Volume I. It uses the same introduction but changes "little `street Arab'" to "ordinary healthy boy" and drops its last paragraph. The selection and the texts of the fables seem to be the same, though this edition changes their order, adds a few morals, and changes some punctuation. There is at the end a list of syllabified words from each of the thirty-three fables; this list replaces the "Black-board Words" at the beginning of each fable in the 1892 edition. There is a new (and again unacknowledged) illustrator who offers one simple full-page illustration per fable somewhat after the manner of Carrick. The best of an undistinguished lot are "The Kid and the Wolf" (6) and "The Arab and the Camel" (100). The grapes here still "rubbed their soft cheeks against one another and laughed softly at the silly old fox" in the text (12), though no longer in the illustration. The cheese smiles on the way down to the fox's mouth (26). "The Rat and the Elephant" adds one misleading quotation mark on 115. "The Fly and the Horse" is a redoing of GB.

1892/1913 Aesop's Fables. Volume II. Edited by Mara L. Pratt. Revised edition. Boston: Educational Publishing Company. $5.50 At Book Nook, College Park, MD, Feb., '92.

Apparently the revised edition of my 1894 Volume II. It adds a repetition of the revised introduction from Volume I. See my notes on the revised Volume I (1892/1912). The best of the undistinguished illustrations are "The Cat and the Monkey" (60) and "The Wolf and the Shepherd" (103). The book is in amazingly good condition.

1892/1969 Indian Fairy Tales. Selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs. Illustrated by John D. Batten. Paperbound. NY: Dover Publications, Inc. $3.50 at Bluestem, Lincoln, Dec., '96.

This book, apparently a facsimile of a David Nutt edition of 1892, reproduces, though with different pagination, my 1905? Putnam's edition. See my comments there. I can add to them that "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal" (66) gets the exasperated tiger to come upon the idea of showing the supposedly stupid jackal how it all started. The note (246) on "The Gold-Giving Serpent" presents Benfey's argument for the Indian origin of the versions of both Babrius and Phaedrus. This edition presents well "The Farmer and the Moneylender" (152) with its characteristic motif of "Whatever you get, I get double." I had not remembered the good story "How the Wicked Sons were Duped" (221). "The Pigeon and the Crow" (223) reminds me of some story, but I cannot put a finger on it among Aesopic materials.

1892? Aesop's Fables. (Aesops Fables on cover.) No author or illustrator mentioned. The illustrations seem to be from Doré, Griset, Tenniel, and Weir. 236 Young Folks Classics Series. Chicago: M.A. Donohue and Co. $10.80 at Walnut Antique Mall, Walnut, Iowa, April, '93.

This book seems to be the predecessor of Donohue and Henneberry's Aesop's Fables of 1896. This edition stops at 111, uses some different full-page illustrations, has no date, lacks the "Henneberry" part of the publisher, and has a different cover of colorful boards. The full-page illustrations here are often generic animal illustrations inserted rather cleverly to match animals talked about on the opposing page. A special prize should be awarded for inserting on 19 the second of two pages of multiple drawings for TMCM; both pages appear and make sense together in Fairy Land Tales Told Long Ago (1885?). Many of the full-page Doré illustrations do not appear here. The paper in this edition blots the ink a great deal. See my comments on the 1896 edition and in particular on its eclecticism.

1893 Aesop's Fables. With Text based chiefly upon Croxall, La Fontaine, and L'Estrange. Illustrated by Ernest Griset. Hardbound. NY: Popular Edition: Cassell & Company. £10 from Ross Old Books & Prints, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, August, '03. Extra copy for £13.50 from Melrose, Waterlooville, UK, through eBay, Oct., '05.

As yet undiscovered editions of Griset's work continue to appear. In this case I am particularly grateful. This is a very nice book in very good condition! Its 422 pages, including an AI at the end, are very compact. The printing of Griset's illustrations, with the exception of the dark "The Owl and Grasshopper" frontispiece, is bright and exact. Another special feature of this edition is the lovely gold-embossed illustration of WC on the green cloth cover. The usual note at the end of the preface mentions that one-hundred-and-thirty fables have been added to those in the first and second editions. There are some fifteen pages of advertisements for Cassell's books at the back. The extra copy, in less good condition, has red cloth on its cover, with the same embossed illustration of WC. Its first regular illustration--of two frogs--is garishly painted.

1893 Les Fables de Phèdre: Édition paléographique d'après le manuscrit Rosanbo. Ulysse Robert. Paris: Imprimerie nationale. $65 at Turtle Island, Aug., '93.

Ex libris Joseph M. Gleason. See xcvii of Perry's Babrius and Phaedrus for praise of this book. See also Pack Carnes' (as yet unpublished) Phaedrus bibliography, which calls this an "accurate paleographic reproduction of the P manuscript (Codex Pithoeanus) of the fables of Phaedrus, named after its sixteenth-century owner, Petrus Pithoeus. The manuscript at the time of this edition was in the possession of the Marquis L. de Rosanbo. Robert (1845-1903) adds a history of the manuscript which dates from the first half of the ninth century and is of uncertain provenance. (The manuscript is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library.)" Carnes lists contemporary critical references.

1893 Pour les grands et les petits: Fables.  Charles Richet.  Illustrations by H. Allouard.  Preface by Sully Prudhomme.  Hardbound.  Paris: Hachette.  €30 from Librairie Jean-Etienne Huret, Paris, May, '22.

1893 Sämtliche Fabeln und Schwänke von Hans Sachs, 1. Band.  Edited by Edmund Goetze.  Hardbound.  Halle/Saale: Nr. 110-117 Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts: Max Niemeyer Verlag.  €17.10 from Antiquariat Hoffmann, Nordhorn, Germany, Dec., '21.

1893/93? Aesop's Fables. Illustrated by Ernest Griset. Text based chiefly upon Croxall, La Fontaine, and L'Estrange. NY: Cassell. $20 at Delavan Booksellers, Aug., '87. Extra copy for $18 from A. Amitin, St. Louis, March, '96.

The illustrations are good, though not quite as good as in the Swedish edition I found earlier this summer. There is a list of illustrations on xi, and an AI at the back. A note at the end of the preface mentions that one-hundred-and-thirty fables have been added to those in the first and second editions. The total of fables is some 325 or so. A very nice book. The text is--except for that note at the end of preface--exactly the same as in the "Arlington Edition" (1899?), though the latter contains fewer illustrations. Osborne, Volume 1, 7. Is this the first edition of the 1893 revision? The extra copy lacks the frontispiece. Its cover has come loose from the spine, and its green front cover and undecorated rear cover show variations from the Delavan copy.

1893/96 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Eudes de Cheriton et ses dérivés. Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie. $50 at Black Oak, Berkeley, Nov., '96.

There are curious questions raised by this book, which I had taken to be an earlier work of Hervieux that was subsequently revised. It turns out to be identical with the fourth volume of Burt Franklin's five-volume reprint of the revised version. Burt Franklin gives "1893-99" as the dates for all five volumes. This one is clearly dated 1896 on its title page. There is no suggestion in the book that it is fourth in a series of volumes. At my suggestion, the book—which has been at Black Oak for some time—was reduced from $65. Note that the bookbinder put "ÉTUDES DE CHERITON" on the spine where he really needed "EUDES DE CHERITON." A beautiful book that once belonged to Joseph Gleason.

1893/99 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome I: Phèdre et ses anciens imitateurs. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No reprint date. $15 from Second Story Books, DC, April, '97.

I am glad at last to get my hands on this important scholarly work. It looks like this first volume on Phaedrus and his direct and indirect imitators (including the Romulus editions, Walther, Marie de France, Neckam and others) is very heavy on manuscripts and editions. There are 834 pages of good Wissenschaft!

1893/99 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome II: Phèdre et ses anciens imitateurs. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No reprint date. $15 from Second Story Books, DC, April, '97.

This second volume (at last!) presents texts from Phaedrus and all the imitators presented in Volume I. The T of C at the back is particularly helpful because it lists each of the fables in each of the collections. Before it there is an alphabetical "Tableau synoptique" grouped according to individual stories. This is the volume that Ayer lacked when it first shipped me a set in 1991. Imagine my surprise at finding the set sitting there for $75 in my first afternoon in Georgetown in 1997! Whoopee!

1893/99 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome III: Avianus et ses anciens imitateurs. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No reprint date. $15 from Second Story Books, DC, April, '97.

This volume on Avianus divides roughly into halves. The first is an introduction to the man and to manuscripts and editions for both him and his imitators. The second half, beginning on 261, presents the fables themselves, with appropriate apparatus. There is an excellent synoptic table of the 52 fables covered on 511-12, just before the T of C.

1893/99 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome IV: Eudes de Cheriton et ses dérivés. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No reprint date. $15 from Second Story Books, DC, April, '97.

This fourth volume is given to Odo and his imitators. There is a helpful alphabetical list of the surprisingly large number of stories in this volume on 451-63, just before the T of C.

1893/99 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome V: Jean de Capoue et ses dérivés. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No reprint date. $15 from Second Story Books, DC, April, '97.

In a spirited introduction, Hervieux declares that his project could be considered finished as of the end of the fourth volume. Here he takes up, as the interior title page expresses, an "étude sur les fables Latines d'origine Indienne." The three sections are given to the Directorium humanae vitae, Baldo, and Kalila and Dimna. There is a helpful alphabetical list of the fables in this volume on 777-82, just before the T of C.

1893/1913 Nouveau Recueil de Fables d'Ésope. Corrigées dans le texte, graduées et annotées avec un lexique par E. Ragon. Huitième édition. Canvas bound. Paris: Ancienne Librairie Poussielgue. Gift of Rev. Francis Gouin, S.J., August, '01.

Here are sixty-five Greek fables, with plenteous footnotes, followed by a lexicon. The pedagogical arrangement of the fables is this: they are grouped according to what they can teach. Thus the first four fables show pure omega verbs. Then come fables using contract verbs. On it goes until we come to fables at the end demonstrating, e.g., the use of adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. The lexicon begins just after the fables on 39. There is on 71 a T of C giving the French title for each of the fables. This book is a gift of Fr. Francis Gouin, S.J., from Casablanca. He writes that it belonged to an uncle who became a Jesuit afterwards. He probably used this book in the Collège St. Croix du Paris between about 1915 and 1920.

1893? Aesop's Fables. No author or illustrator mentioned. The illustrations seem to be from Doré, Griset, Tenniel, and Weir. Young Folks Classics Series No. 232. Chicago: M.A. Donohue and Co. From Clare Leeper, July, '96, who paid $25 for it. Extra copies for $7 at the Rose Bowl flea market, Aug., '93 and (with a mismatched cover from The Three Bears) for $2 at 5^th Avenue Antiques, Milwaukee, August, ‘96.

This book is in the family of my 1892? and 1896 editions of the same name. See my comments in those two places. Differences from the former, to which it is closer, include these: This edition goes to 123, not 111; it changes cover design and drops the imprints of children on the inside covers; it is #232 rather than #236; and it puts Donohue in Chicago and New York on its cover (though not on the reverse of the title page). The prize on this reading goes to the picture on 27 of a mother and daughter: with what fable does this engraving fit? The full-page (often unrelated) engravings seem to come only every four pages except for the extras at 13 and 19. There is some pencilling and crayoning in the extra copy. Page 22 features two milkmaids from different engraving traditions.

1893? Aesop's Fables.  With Text based chiefly upon Croxall, La Fontaine, and L'Estrange.  Illustrated by Ernest Griset.  Hardbound.  NY: Popular Edition:  Cassell & Company.  $25 from More Moe's, Berkeley, Jan., '16.

I thought I was buying a second copy of a book I already had found.  Wrong again!  This book is, it is true, remarkably similar to one purchased in August of 2003 from Ross Old Books & Prints, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.  There are clear differences.  This book has gilt on its title on the cover, whereas that book did not.  This book adds "New York" on the title-page and on the final page of the book.  It also adds a slipsheet between the frontispiece and the title-page.  It removes the date from the title-page; it also removes the marker from Sauvage Leon on the verso of the title-page.  This book has a number -- a date? -- of 10-88, whereas that book had 11.92.  Bibliographers will enjoy the close comparison.  This book was sold by Widdison in Sheffield.  In this copy, there are some sixteen pages of advertisements for Cassell's books at the back. These advertisements at the end of the book are slightly different.  My sense is that some series have grown, and some have changed.  It may help some to include comments from the edition clearly marked by its date of publication, 1893.  Its 422 pages, including an AI at the end, are very compact.  The printing of Griset's illustrations, with the exception of the dark "The Owl and Grasshopper" frontispiece, is bright and exact.  A special feature of this edition is the lovely gold-embossed illustration of WC on the green cloth cover.  The usual note at the end of the preface mentions that one-hundred-and-thirty fables have been added to those in the first and second editions.

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1894 A Child's Version of Aesop's Fables.  J.H. Stickney.  Illustrations from Gustave Doré, Harrison Weir, and F. Myrick (?), NA.  Hardbound.  Boston: Classics for Children:  Ginn and Co.  $2.25 from Michael Noonan, Orange, MA, through Ebay, Jan., '16.

1894 Aesop's Fables.  Young Folk's Library of Choice Literature, Volume II.  First Grade.  Edited by Mara L. Pratt.  Boston: Educational Publishing Company.  $14 from Greg Williams, May, '94.

1894 Aesop's Fables Part I. Young Folk's Library of Choice Literature, Volume I, Number 2, April 1, 1894. Edited by Mara L. Pratt. Boston: Educational Publishing Company. $15 at Yesterday's Memories, Summer, '88.

This is a reproduction of the first nine fables of Aesop's Fables (1892) by the same author and publisher. Notice that Aesop represents the first material for the first grade in the five cent classics advertised inside the front cover. The title picture of FG is better printed here. Otherwise the illustrations here tend to be poorer. The publisher has expanded to San Francisco. No introduction or T of C. The grapes still smile on 10!

1894 Aesop's Fables, No. II.  Mara L. Pratt.  Paperbound.  Boston: Young Folk's Library of Choice Literature, Volume I, Number 3, April 16, 1894:  Educational Publishing Company.  $10 from jrbmeat79 through eBay, Oct., '14.  

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio. Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. #249 of 350 copies. Tome Premier. Tokio: Tsoukidji-Tokio. $318.75 from Bartleby's, Sept., '91.

Here is the gem of the collection! What a marvelous pair of volumes! Each of the fourteen fables has a two-page illustration printed on only one side of the paper. The best here include: "The Swallow and the Small Birds," OF, "Two Dragons," "The Monkey Judging the Wolf and the Fox," "The Oak and the Reed," "The Two Bulls," "The Eagle Wounded," "The Council of Rats," FG, and "The Jay in Peacock Feathers."

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier. Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio. Not numbered. Paperbound. Tokyo: Tsoukidji-Tokio. €112.50 from De Slegte, Amsterdam, July, ‘07.

This pair of volumes seems almost identical with the pair that I found from Bartleby's in 1991. Closer inspection shows two differences. First, there is a number stamped on the verso of the cover in that edition's first volume, but there is no such number here. This volume has exactly the same declaration as that about the number of volumes printed. Perhaps this copy comes from a second edition or an unmentioned group printed without numbering at the time of the first edition. The second difference has to do with the coloring of individual pictures. It is regularly slightly different: often less brilliant, sometimes less subtle. Thus the grasshopper in GA has little red on his cravat. And both the crow and his tree are much darker here in FC. The book has the same format, apparently the same paper, and the same binding. Once again here, use seems to be destroying the integrity of the lacing that functions as a binding. Let me repeat here the remarks I made there. Here is the gem of the collection! What a marvelous pair of volumes! Each of the fourteen fables has a two-page illustration printed on only one side of the paper. The best here include: "The Swallow and the Small Birds," OF, "Two Dragons," "The Monkey Judging the Wolf and the Fox," "The Oak and the Reed," "The Two Bulls," "The Eagle Wounded," "The Council of Rats," FG, and "The Jay in Peacock Feathers. "

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau.  Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio.  Not numbered.  Paperbound.  Tokyo:  Tsoukidji-Tokio.  €20 from nele-2574 through Ebay, Oct., '21.

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio. Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Lace-bound. Tome Premier. Tokyo: Tsoukidji-Tokio. $100 from Moe's Books, Berkeley, by mail, Nov., '97.

This is a crepe-paper (or rice-paper?) version of the great large paper book I found in the numbered edition ten years ago. This edition has "E. Flammarion Éditeur" stamped on its cover. The book is extremely fragile, lacks one of its two laces, and has a detached back cover. Though the paper is of a much different consistency, the pages are still double as in that edition. The title-page here is done entirely in black, including the simpler border and seal, while the border and seal there are done in brown. "La Fontaine" on the title-page here is not sculptured into the paper as it is there. This edition is not numbered, though the inside front-cover still speaks of the limited edition of 350 copies. The images here are proportionally smaller. Most of the colors here are not as strong as they are in the larger paper edition. One illustration seems to have colors as strong here as there: CJ. See my notes there on particularly good images among the fourteen. Bassy #50. Bodemann #373.1. Hobbs #39, where she alone writes of a "large paper edition" (which I take to be my earlier find in contrast to this edition).

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau.  Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio.  Tokyo: Tsoukidji-Tokio.  $100 from David Fletcher, Warren, ME, through eBay, Feb., '16.

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Premier.  Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau.  Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio.  Hardbound.  Tokyo: Tsoukidji-Tokio.  $88.88 from steagles1943 on Ebay, July, '20.

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio. Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. #249 of 350 copies. Tome Second. Tokio: Tsoukidji-Tokio. $318.75 from Bartleby's, Sept., '91.

Here is the gem of the collection! What a marvelous pair of volumes! Each of the fourteen fables has a two-page illustration printed on only one side of the paper. The best here include: "The Cock and the Fox," "The Monkey and the Dolphin," WC, AD, FM, and TT." See Hobbs, 110, for commentary on the whole edition.

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine, Tome Second. Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio. Not numbered. Paperbound. Tokyo: Tsoukidji-Tokio. €112.50 from De Slegte, July, ‘07.

This pair of volumes seems almost identical with the pair that I found from Bartleby's in 1991. Closer inspection shows two differences. First, there is a number stamped on the verso of the cover in that edition's first volume, but there is no such number here. This volume has exactly the same declaration as that about the number of volumes printed. Perhaps this copy comes from a second edition or an unmentioned group printed without numbering at the time of the first edition. The second difference has to do with the coloring of individual pictures. It is regularly slightly different: often less brilliant, sometimes less subtle. Let me repeat here the remarks I made there. Here is the gem of the collection! What a marvelous pair of volumes! Each of the fourteen fables has a two-page illustration printed on only one side of the paper. The best here include: "The Cock and the Fox," "The Monkey and the Dolphin," WC, AD, FM, and TT." See Hobbs, 110, for commentary on the whole edition.

1894 Choix de Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrées par un Groupe des Meilleurs Artistes de Tokio. Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Lace-bound. Tome Second. Tokyo: Tsoukidji-Tokio. $100 from Moe's Books, Berkeley, by mail, Nov., '97.

This is a crepe-paper (or rice-paper?) version of the great large paper book I found in the numbered edition ten years ago. This edition has "E. Flammarion Éditeur" stamped on its cover. The book is extremely fragile and has a detached back cover. Though the paper is of a much different consistency, the pages are still double as in that edition. The title-page here is done entirely in black, including the simpler border, seal, and "La Fontaine," while these elements there are done in brown. This edition is not numbered, though the inside front-cover still speaks of the limited edition of 350 copies. The images here are proportionally smaller. The colors here are much better rendered than they are in the companion "Tome Premier." Only one illustration is disappointingly faint here: "Le Renard et le Chat." See my notes about the large paper edition on particularly good images among the fourteen. Bassy #50. Bodemann #373.1. Hobbs #39, where she alone writes of a "large paper edition" (which I take to be my earlier find in contrast to this edition).

1894 Fables and Rhymes for Beginners: The First Two Hundred Words. By John G. Thompson and Thomas E. Thompson. Hardbound. Boston: Ginn and Company. $15.65 from alibris, Sept., '02. Extra copy for $6.99 from Anna Phillips, Easley, SC, through Ebay, Dec., '00. 

The first sentence of the introduction sets a good goal: "This primer is an attempt to place before children, at the very beginning, something worth reading, in a form simple enough for them to read" (iii). There are thirty texts here in all, spread over 82 pages. Of these some nineteen are fables. They include CP, FG, FC, DM, "The Cat and the Birds," DS, "The Dove and the Bee," LM, "The Fox and the Lion," BC, "The Boys and the Frogs," "The Fox in the Well," "The Fox and the Cat," "The Wolf and the Goat," BW, "The Man and the Little Fish," "The Fox and the Crab," "The Donkey and the Frogs," and "The Blind Man and the Lame Man." The tellings seem standard. Frequently the book does a warm-up for a fable by introducing words and sentences from the fable's particular area of life. Each fable has one illustration. The good copy is in very good condition. In the extra copy, a number of pages are torn and stained, and many of the back pages of word lists (83-98) are torn or removed.

1894 Favourite Fables and Stories About Animals, containing: The Favourite Book of Fables and Favourite Stories about Animals. NA. With Numerous Illustrations (by Harrison Weir et al). Hardbound. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. $21.46 from Derek Slavin, Leamington Spa, UK, Feb., '02.

The first of the two books combined here I have already had. It is a lovely little book of 117 fables with a mix of illustrators and illustration styles. As I write there, I think I can detect four different styles and, presumably, sources. (1) The sharpest and best is a set of mid-sized rectangular engravings by W. Small (e.g., 17 and 25). (2) The largest occupy a full page, broken in some way by the presence of text (e.g., 13 and 57). (3) Next in size comes a set of large squares (59 and 75). Either of these last two categories may be by or from Weir. (4) The smallest rectangles seem to be a poor man's Bewick (11 and 20). I wish I could place the source of the ass's sprawl on 49. See my comment there on the Weir illustration of TB on 73. The second volume of longer animal stories has the same variety of illustration styles.

1894 First Book in English. By William H. Maxwell. Maxwell’s English Series. For Use in Primary Grades. NY: American Book Company. $5 at Golden Scarab, New Orleans, August, ’96.

This is a standard early-grades exercise-book that uses fables creatively. FG is told entirely through questions, with the answers given in parentheses (14). It has a simple illustration. On 53, the student is given first an illustration of a crow with a pebble in his mouth and secondly a set of words with which to compose the story of CP. "The Boy and the Nettles" (54) and "The Boy and the Frogs" (55) are told simply as a springboard for analysis, discussion, and drawing. "The Two Goats" appears in two versions on 62-3, with a counter story on 75. A skeletal version of LM appears on 63-4 as a composition-stimulus. "The Fly and the Moth" (80) follows the pattern of many Aesopic fables: she who laughs at the misfortune of others soon runs into her own calamity.

1894 Florian's Fables Book V. Edited with Notes and Vocabulary by Rev. James Rice. Paperbound. Dublin: E. Ponsonby et al. €16.46 from Kennys.ie, Nov., '09.

Here is a handy little volume that could be a distinct help the next time I work with Florian. There are 34 pages of texts and commentary, followed by an unpaginated 36-page vocabulary. The notes beginning on 24 are almost entirely linguistic rather than literary. The collector in me notices immediately that Rice published three other booklets of Florian, covering respectively Books I-II, Books III-IV, and Book II. I would think that students would have been rather advanced to be working on Florian's fables.

1894 Indiana State Series Third Reader. By Chas. H. Allen, John Swett, and Josiah Royce. Hardbound. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana School Book Co. $2 from Serendipity Books, Berkeley, Dec., '99.

My sense has been that those who have designed grade school readers have seen the third grade as the best for reading fables. This reader fits that perception. Included are: GGE (13); "The Cats and the Monkey" (21, illustrated); FC (31); FS (34, with two nice silhouettes); WL (74); DM (93, illustrated); DS (105); TH (127); FG (127); DLS (159, illustrated); WSC (160); and "The Boy That Stole Apples" (206). The lamb in WL answers, when accused of eating the wolf's grass, that she did not think that the wolf ate grass. The fox recognizes the donkey by both his long ears and his noisy bray. The shepherd who catches the wolf in sheep's clothing hangs him and has to explain to travelers that he does not hang his own sheep. T of C at the beginning. Fair condition. Apparently complete.

1894 Polnoe Sobranie Basen I.A. Krylova. Edited by F.A. Iogansona. Hardbound. Kiev: Muniamyrnoe Usganie: Kharbrov. $19 from Valentina Fuchsmann, Lithuania, through eBay, August, '05. 

This is a lovely, fragile, little (2¾" x 3½") book. It is slightly larger than what we might call a miniature. Its seller called it a "pocket book," but it is certainly smaller than what the French would call a "livre de poche." Its illustrations show some wit; it is a pity that they are so small! Notice, for example, the fanciful presentation of OF on 11. The black-and-white illustrations occur about every twenty pages in this book of 256 pages with an AI at the end. Their frequency seems to go down as one gets further into the book. They occur in diverse sizes and styles. Some are full-page illustrations, like that for FK on 37 or of the old woman waking up her two maids on 130. Some are smaller but still show a concern for detail, like the image of the old man planting a tree near three youths on 88. Most of the illustrations seem to be in this group. A small group of illustrations are small in size and rather sketchy, like GA on 54. It is fitting that I received this book from an eBay seller in Lithuania, since this book has travelled!

1894 Sämtliche Fabeln und Schwänke von Hans Sachs, 2. Band.  Edited by Edmund Goetze.  Hardbound.  Halle/Saale: Nr. 110-117 Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts: Max Niemeyer Verlag.  €17.10 from Antiquariat Hoffmann, Nordhorn, Germany, Dec., '21.

1894 Sparks of Light from a Fabulist's Diamond Mine: A Series of 240 Original Fables with Short Morals [Cover: Original Fables]. By H. Berkeley Score. With Portrait and 17 Etchings on Copper. Hardbound. Printed in Ormskirk, UK. Ormskirk, UK: T. Hutton. £25 from Addyman Books, Hay-on-Wye, June, '97.

I read the first fifteen of the 240 fables here. They are fables, and they are original. I find them heavily moral. Thus "The Spider and the Moth" (4) has the spider seeing the moth's infatuation with the flame and lamenting our infatuation with sin. As Score writes in the preface, it is not at all easy to create a fable. He mentions having discarded some twenty of those he had written when he would discover that something very like each of these had already been written by someone else. Though these are genuine fables, they tend to the long, predictable, and tedious. Once you see fable as a way of inculcating morality, I am afraid that the fables tend to turn out this way. I am touched by "Plutus Disgusted" (13). The god of wealth, disguised as a beggar, visits rich people and is rejected by them, but is taken in by a poor family. He of course rewards them richly. "Those who have the least in this world generally give the most." There is a T of C at the front and a list of subscribers at the back. Note that the title on the spine of the book is "Original Fables."

1894 The Fables of Aesop: Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. Hardbound. London & NY: MacMillan & Co. £15 from Stella Books, Tintern, UK, Dec., '98. 

I count twelve different editions of Jacobs/Heighway that I have collected before I finally got back to a first edition. This book has a green decorated cloth cover with gilt titles. It is inscribed in 1903. There is a curious pre-title page that says "Jacobs's Fables of Aesop." The book is in very good condition. I love Heighway's work! There are 220 pages, followed by a two-page AI and by advertisements. The order of the early elements following the curious "Jacobs's" page is this: a left-hand page with a MacMillan logo (M over M over & over C, all framed); a left-page frontispiece of two scenes showing FS; a tissue protector; a title page with ornate left and right borders; a right-page dedication to Prof. F.J. Child; a preface signed by Jacobs beginning on the right page (ix) and ending over a design on xii; a "Contents" page; "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" (xv-xxii); "List of Fables" (xxiii-xxv) including eighty-two fables numbered here but not in the text; a left-page showing a hand holding a mirror's reflection of a demon and a right page with a framed scroll of a title ("The Fables of Aesop"); and finally "The Cock and the Pearl" (2-3). By contrast with many of the smaller editions, the two pages of one fable here face each other, and so one does not need to turn a page to finish a fable. The illustrations, titles, and closing designs are very distinct here. Among the best are "The Hart & the Hunter" (64), "The Fox & the Cat" (90), "The Shepherd's Boy" (103), "The Four Oxen & The Lion" (123), and GGE (134). There is a bit of pencilling on 181 and 189.

1894 The Fables of Aesop: Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. Hardbound. London & NY: MacMillan & Co. $100 from Brian Harvitz, Bellevue, WA, through Ebay, Feb., '00.

This book is internally identical with the Stella Books first edition I have listed under the same date. After years of not finding a first edition, I found two in a little over a year. See my comments there. This book adds advertisements for "The Cranford Series" on the last few pages, where the other edition had advertisements for "The New Cranford Series." And as far as I can tell, this book in the Cranford series cost 6s. while in the other book it cost 3s.6d. In "The New Cranford Series." The chief difference between the two books lies in the gold image of FC embossed on the deep green cover here and in the gold image of FS embossed on the spine. The source for the former is on 21; the latter seems to be a new image not contained in either the frontispiece or on 48-51. Originally sold by Lipman, Wolfe, & Co. in Portland, OR. This is a real star of a book!

1894/95? The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. On spine: New Beverly Edition. Inscribed in 1895. NY: Home Book Company. Hardbound. $3 from Renaissance, Feb., '87.

This small (4½" x 6½") edition with a plain tan cover shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Montgomery Ward 1894/98? ("La Belle Library" on cover); Caldwell 1894/1900? (red roses against a gold background on cover); Caldwell 1894/1901? (two children reading on cover); Caldwell 1894/1902? (DS on cover); Pathfinder 1894/1905? (abstract silver designs against maroon background without title on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between "The Jay and the Peacock" and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the "Contents" page is not well matched with what follows. It announces "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" on 11. It announces next a "List of Fables" on 19, but it is on 5. It announces "Aesop's Fables" on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 ("The Sick Lion"), 64 ("The Bald Man and the Fly"), and 196 ("The Buffoon and the Countryman"). In the pre-title-pages of this edition we find on the left two pictures for FS and then, two pages later, on the right and upside-down a mirror showing us a demon. There is no frontispiece. There is a full title-page acknowledging Jacobs and Heighway. The preface and history are present. None of the usual paste-in pictures are present. The book is inscribed in 1895.

1894/98? The Fables of Aesop. Joseph Jacobs. Richard Heighway NA. Hardbound. Printed in Chicago: Montgomery Ward & Co. $1.50 from Saxyn Piffath, Fayetteville, AR, through Ebay, May, '99.

This small (4½" x 6½") edition with a plain tan cover shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Home Book Company 1894/95? (plain tan cover with title); Caldwell 1894/1900? (red roses against a gold background on cover); Caldwell 1894/1901? (two children reading on cover); Caldwell 1894/1902? (DS on cover); Pathfinder 1894/1905? (abstract silver designs against maroon background without title on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between "The Jay and the Peacock" and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the "Contents" page is not well matched with what follows. It announces "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" on 11. It announces next a "List of Fables" on 19, but it is on 5. It announces "Aesop's Fables" on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 ("The Sick Lion"), 64 ("The Bald Man and the Fly"), and 196 ("The Buffoon and the Countryman"). This edition has "La Belle Library" on its cover amid brown, tan, and gold blossoms. In its pre-title-pages we find on the left two pictures for FS and on the right a mirror showing us a demon. The next page is the frontispiece, facing the title-page, and presents the three scenes of "The Fox and the Lion." This edition has the preface (with Jacobs named at its end) and history. Heighway is nowhere mentioned. It has all three paste-ins in the appropriate places.

1894/1900? Fables: Aesop. Joseph Jacobs. Richard Heighway. Hardbound. NY: H.M. Caldwell Company. Gift of Catherine Clark of Carlisle, PA, April, '85.

This small (4½" x 6½") edition shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Home Book Company 1894/95? (plain tan cover with title); Montgomery Ward 1894/98 ("La Belle Library" on cover); Caldwell 1894/1901? (two children reading on cover); Caldwell 1894/1902? (DS on cover); Pathfinder 1894/1905? (abstract silver designs against maroon background without title on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between "The Jay and the Peacock" and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the "Contents" page is not well matched with what follows. It announces "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" on 11. It announces next a "List of Fables" on 19, but it is on 5. It announces "Aesop's Fables" on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 ("The Sick Lion"), 64 ("The Bald Man and the Fly"), and 196 ("The Buffoon and the Countryman"). This edition--with red roses against a gold background on the cover--has only the demon-in-the-mirror image on the left pre-title page. It has the frontispiece ("The Fox and the Lion"), the preface with Jacobs' name, and the history. Heighway is nowhere mentioned. The inserted image of the sick lion is not present (if it ever was), while that of the bald man is loose at 65, and that of the countryman with the pig is misplaced at 200. This book is beautifully bound. Inscribed in June, 1900, as an award to Nettie Lutz for Punctual Attendance.

1894/1901? Fables: Aesop. Joseph Jacobs. Richard Heighway. Hardbound. NY: H.M. Caldwell Company. $11.25 from mad dog and the pilgrim booksellers, Denver, March, '94.

This small (4½" x 6½") edition shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Home Book Company 1894/95? (plain tan cover with title); Montgomery Ward 1894/98 ("La Belle Library" on cover); Caldwell 1894/1900? (red roses against a gold background on cover); Caldwell 1894/1902? (DS on cover); Pathfinder 1894/1905? (abstract silver designs against maroon background without title on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between "The Jay and the Peacock" and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the "Contents" page is not well matched with what follows. It announces "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" on 11. It announces next a "List of Fables" on 19, but it is on 5. It announces "Aesop's Fables" on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 ("The Sick Lion"), 64 ("The Bald Man and the Fly"), and 196 ("The Buffoon and the Countryman"). This edition--with two children reading on a window-bench on the cover-- has only the demon-in-the-mirror image on the left pre-title page. It has a colored frontispiece of DS (which will appear as a cover illustration in the Caldwell edition I have assigned to "1902?"). It has the frontispiece image of fox and lion just before the preface on 8. The preface names Jacobs. Heighway is nowhere mentioned. The history follows. The inserted image of the sick lion is misplaced at 40, that of the bald man is misplaced at 56, and that of the countryman with the pig at 200. The front end-paper is stamped with an ex lib poem. The book is inscribed at Christmas, 1901.

1894/1902? Fables: Aesop. Joseph Jacobs. Richard Heighway. Hardbound. NY: H.M. Caldwell Company. $18.50 from Great Exchange Flea Market, Grand Island, NE, Oct., '98.

This small (4½" x 6½") edition shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Home Book Company 1894/95? (plain tan cover with title); Montgomery Ward 1894/98 ("La Belle Library" on cover); Caldwell 1894/1900? (red roses against a gold background on cover); Caldwell 1894/1901? (two children reading on cover); Pathfinder 1894/1905? (abstract silver designs against maroon background without title on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between "The Jay and the Peacock" and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the "Contents" page is not well matched with what follows. It announces "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" on 11. It announces next a "List of Fables" on 19, but it is on 5. It announces "Aesop's Fables" on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 ("The Sick Lion"), 64 ("The Bald Man and the Fly"), and 196 ("The Buffoon and the Countryman"). This edition has a good colored image of DS on its cover; this same image had been used as frontispiece in the Caldwell version I have placed under "1901?" If this edition once had pre-title pages, they are gone. There is a frontispiece showing the fox and the lion. There is neither preface nor history present. Neither Jacobs nor Heighway is anywhere mentioned. Thus the two blank pages after "7" lead directly into "26." There is a lovely brown inserted image of the sick lion at 42 but none of the bald man or the countryman with the pig. The front end-paper is stamped with an ex lib poem. I was in Grand Island for a few hours to give a fable talk. I found this book sitting in a glass case at the entrance to the flea market. Lucky me!

1894/1905? The Fables of Aesop: Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. Hardbound. Washington: Pathfinder Publishing Co. $5 from Jackson Street Booksellers, April, '93.

This small (4½" x 6½") edition shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Home Book Company 1894/95? (plain tan cover with title); Montgomery Ward 1894/98 ("La Belle Library" on cover); Caldwell 1894/1900? (red roses against a gold background on cover); Caldwell 1894/1901? (two children reading on cover); Caldwell 1894/1902? (DS on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between "The Jay and the Peacock" and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the "Contents" page is not well matched with what follows. It announces "A Short History of the Aesopic Fable" on 11. It announces next a "List of Fables" on 19, but it is on 5. It announces "Aesop's Fables" on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 ("The Sick Lion"), 64 ("The Bald Man and the Fly"), and 196 ("The Buffoon and the Countryman"). In its pre-title-pages we find on the left two pictures for FS and on the right a mirror showing us a demon. There is no frontispiece. There is a full title-page acknowledging Jacobs and Heighway. The preface and history are present. None of the usual paste-in pictures are present. The book is inscribed in 1906.

1894/1906 The Fables of Aesop: Selected, told anew and their history traced.  Joseph Jacobs.  Illustrated by Richard Heighway.  Hardbound.  NY: F.M. Lupton Publishing Company.  Gift of Daria Castiglione, Dec., '15.

1894/1910? Fables of Aesop. Title page missing. (Edited by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway.) Bay View Publishing Co. Gift of Thomas Beckman, March, '95.

This book compares in rough fashion with the four mentioned together under 1894/1901?, but it has a number of distinctive features. The other four begin fables on 26 and end on 202 with "And this is the end of Aesop's Fables. Hurrah!" They then add notes through 228. This edition begins fables on 29 and ends on 198 without either "Hurrah!" or notes. I have catalogued separately the eleven pages it cuts and the four it adds. In the process, it corrects the stretches in the other four editions during which two-page fables require a page-turn. This edition also adds lovely initials. It places the "Face in the Mirror" design on the last page of the T of C. A lovely little gift!

1894/1929 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. NY: Macmillan. $5 sometime before 1983.

A reprint of the 1894 edition, with a colored frontispiece of FC. Otherwise apparently a standard reprinting.

1894/1930/37 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. NY: Macmillan. Gift of Mary Pat Ryan from Pleasant Street Books, Woodstock, Vermont, Dec., '89.

Identical with the 1929 printing of the 1894 edition except for the gaudy coloring of the frontispiece (a red fox and yellow grass!), the thick cheap paper, and the notation on the back of the title page that there was a new edition in 1930. The book was the property of the Vermont Library Commission; might the plain cover have been made for or by them? Both Jacobs and Heighway remain delightful no matter how often I read them.

1894/1940 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. Hardbound. Dust jacket. Printed in USA. NY: Macmillan. $2.99 from Phyleb on Ebay, Jan., '02.

The special value of this reprinting of Jacobs' work lies in the dust-jacket, which is in fair to good condition. It reproduces the garishly colored frontispiece found in the many reprints that Macmillan did of the Heighway/Jacobs book. This copy fits between my 1937 and my 1945 reprints of the same book. I mention a propos of the former the gaudy coloring of the frontispiece (a red fox and yellow grass!), the thick cheap paper, and the notation on the back of the title page that there was a new edition in 1930. Like the 1945 reprint, this edition has a handy list on the back of its title-page of the sixteen reprintings of the first edition through 1929 and also of the reprintings of the 1930 new edition. The runs of the illustrations are very good. Both the dust jacket and the back of the "Jacobs's" page advertise "The MacMillan Children's Classics" and assign Aesop's fables to ages 4-6.

1894/1945 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. Hardbound. Printed in USA. NY: Macmillan. $15 from Scott's Books, Milford, NH, March, '00. Extra copy of the 1945 printing for $6 from Nancy Stewart, Beaverton, March, '96.

This book has strong similarities to the first printing in its lovely black vine-and-leaf pattern stamped onto its red cover (but not spine). This edition lacks the gold lettering found there on cover and spine--and found also in the 1929 blue-covered copy. With the 1937 reprint this edition shares the gaudy coloring of the frontispiece (a red fox and yellow grass!). This edition also has a handy list on the back of its title-page of the sixteen reprintings of the first edition through 1929 and of the twelve reprintings of the 1930 new edition. The runs of the illustrations are very good. The back of the "Jacobs's" page advertises "The MacMillan Children's Classics" and assigns Aesop's fables to ages 4-6.

1894/1966 The Fables of Aesop. Edited, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. ©1966 Legacy Press. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc.: Xerox. $4.50, Spring, '92. Extra copy for $8.50 from Kaboom, New Orleans, Dec., '92.

Is it not curious that this publisher would choose to go back to Jacobs and Heighway the very year that Schocken picked them up? An unidentified Legacy Library editor "G.H." writes an introductory note to the reader. This edition reproduces Heighway's work attractively in blue and aqua (with black for enclosed print). I now count eight different formats in which I have this classic work.

1894/1966 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, Told anew and their History Traced by Joseph Jacobs. Illustrated by Richard Heighway. NY: Schocken Books. Hardbound with dust jacket for $10 from Children's BookAdoption Agency, Kensington, MD, Sept., '91. 

This may be the best single simple edition of Aesop I know. Heighway is a wonderful illustrator. This edition presents the engravings quite crisply.

1894/1976 The Fables of Aesop.  Joseph Jacobs.  Richard Heighway.  First printing?  Paperbound.  NY: Schocken Books.  $2.95 from Downtown Books, Milwaukee, Nov., '92.

1894/1979 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, Told anew and their History Traced by Joseph Jacobs. Illustrated by Richard Heighway. Paperbound. NY: Schocken Books. $3.95 from an unknown source, June, '84.

In 1966 Schocken published both hardbound and paperback editions of the Aesop by Jacobs and Heighway. This is the 1979 printing of the paperback. The cover illustration has changed since the 1976 printing of the paperback. It now features Heighway's WC. As I mentioned a propos of the 1966 hardbound copy, this may be the best single simple edition of Aesop that I know. Like the hardbound and the earlier paperback copy, this printing presents the engravings quite crisply.

1894/1979 The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. Dust jacket. Facsimile printed in Hong Kong. NY: Mayflower Books. $4.88 at Meandaur, June, '93. Extra copy for $5.98 at Half-Price, Dallas, Sept., '94.

I continue to find various reprints of this great book. This book brings to nine the number of different formats in which I have this work. This edition is very nicely done for $5.95. The illustrations are clear. The book is small and has a nice feel--and even a built-in placemark ribbon!

1894/1982 The Fables of Aesop.  Joseph Jacobs.  Richard Heighway.  Sixth printing.  Paperbound.  NY: Schocken Books.  $4.95 from an unknown source, June, '88.

1894/1983 Tales of the Punjab: Folklore of India. Flora Annie Steel. With illustrations by J. Lockwood Kipling and notes by R.C. Temple. Dust jacket. Distributed by Crown Publishers. NY: Greenwich House. $4 at Used Books and Unicorns, Kirksville, MO, Oct., '94. Extra copy without dust jacket for $18 at Moe's, Nov., '96.

Forty-five stories with sixty-five illustrations. Many of the stories are indeed folklore but not fable. The preface declares that these are current folk-tales not "manipulated into a flowery dignity." The method described for eliciting them (xiii) is delightful. There is so much changing of things into princes that, when one of the fables appears, I rejoice! The fables I notice are: "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal" (107), "The Close Alliance" (123, featuring a tiger and a jackal), "The Jackal and the Iguana" (144), "The Jackal and the Partridge" (173), "The Jackal and the Pea-Hen" (195, the best of the fables here), and "The Jackal and the Crocodile" 230). The jackal has many starring roles! Fun but not fables: "The Bear's Bad Bargain" (35) and "The Barber's Clever Wife" (220). The book was at one time in the library of Elmer C. Mayer.

1894/1987 The Fables of Aesop. Joseph Jacobs. Richard Heighway. Paperbound. NY: Schocken Books. $4.80 from Shakespeare and Co. Books, Berkeley, June, '98.

In 1966 Schocken published both hardbound and paperback editions of the Aesop by Jacobs and Heighway. This is the 1987 printing of the paperback. The cover has changed since the 1979 printing of the paperback. It now uses black rather than orange ink for its print and for the illustration of Heighway's WC. The price has gone up from $3.95 to $7.95. "1987" is not mentioned in the bibliographical information inside the book but it appears on the back cover. As I mentioned a propos of the 1966 hardbound copy, this may be the best single simple edition of Aesop that I know. Like the hardbound and the earlier paperback copy, this printing presents the engravings quite crisply.

1894/2002 The Fables of Aesop.  Edited by Joseph Jacobs.  With original drawings by Richard Heighway.  Paperbound.  Mineola, NY: Dover Evergreen Classics:  Dover Publications.  $2.50 from Wordsworth, Cambridge, MA, Jan., '03.

1894? Aesop's Fables: A Selection of Sixty of the best known and most often quoted, with an Introductory Sketch. Canvas-bound booklet. Maynard's English Classic Series #133. NY: Maynard, Merrill, & Co., Publishers. $5.99 from Bob Bailey, Harmony, PA, through Ebay, Oct., '00.

Here is a handy little volume of sixty fables. It might be serve as a good indicator of which fables people were expected to know around the turn of the century. The cover promises "Explanatory Notes" but I find none. In fact, there is but a two-page introduction besides a title-page and the sixty pages of fables. A worm ate a large chunk out of the upper portion of the first fourteen pages! There are about seventeen illustrations; several seem to be derived from Weir. This is a specimen copy given with the compliments of the publisher. Canvas binding with stiff boards.

1894? Selections from Aesop's Fables [On cover: Select Fables.]. Versified by Mrs. Clara Doty Bates. Accompanied by the Standard Translations from the Original Greek. Illustrated by E.H. Garrett, F.H. Lungren, F. Childe Hassam, George Foster Barnes, M.J. Sweeney. Hardbound. Printed in London: Pictorial Literature Society. See 1884/94?

1895 Aesop's Fables. Illustrated by Charles Robinson. Hardbound. Printed in Edinburgh. London: The Banbury Cross Series: I.M. Dent & Co. $125 from Alibris, Nov., '00.

I had learned of this lovely little book through Ash & Higton (1990). This is a small book, 3½" x 5¾". The illustrations are beautiful, starting from the frontispiece of a stork eating frogs and a title-page illustration of children turning the pages of a book. The typical approach to a fable involves a delightful first design on a single title-page. One or two bold full-page illustrations precede the text, and a last design finishes up. Often the first and last designs are whimsical and involve children playing with the main symbols of the story. There are twelve fables: BF, SW, DM, "Mercury and the Woodman," FS, GA, LM, CP, FK, FG, WL, and FC. Of the title-designs, my prize goes to that for SW. The two bold illustrations for SW are also prize-winners; Ash & Higton do well to select them as samples. FS also presents a bold pair of contrasting illustrations. The single illustration of King Stork in FK is again vivid. Even the "finis" design is attractive, as the characters march off into the sunset. Inscribed "Hugo S. Knight, Nov., 1906" before the title-page and "Hypatia Knight from Syd, May 7th 08" on the front facing endpaper. There are remnants of a red ribbon with which to tie together the two gold-embossed golden covers.

1895 Aesop's Fables. Literally translated from the Greek by Geo. Fyler Townsend, M.A. With nearly one hundred illustrations, from designs by Harrison Weir. On spine: "Empire Edition." NY: New York Publishing Company. $12 by mail from Shorey, Seattle, May, '94.

This book has identical plates with the American News edition (1885?) without Krilof's fables. This book has an embossed maroon cloth cover, much thicker pages than that edition, and pages gilt at the top. Can the plates have picked up the smudges that they show here by contrast with the crisp type there? I have trouble dating these various Weir/Townsend editions, but I am at least thankful for the firm date on the title page here.

1895 Aesop's Fables in Words of One Syllable. Mary Godolphin. NY: A.L. Burt Company. $2.50 at Constant Reader, Summer, '86.

Two things distinguish this little book: its monosyllables and the mix of drawings. Besides the majority of them, which are taken from Percy Billinghurst, there are several in a different medium and style, most of which are marked "E.G." (Ernest Griset). The two that catch my eye especially are "The Blind Man and the Lame Man" on 73 and MSA on 27. T of C at the front.

1895 Aesop's Fables in Words of One Syllable. Mary Godolphin. Illustrations by Percy Billinghurst and Ernest Griset, not acknowledged. Hardbound. NY: Burt's Series of One Syllable Books: A.L. Burt Company. $30 from Robert Eller, Seaford, DE through Ebay, Sept., '00.

This book uses the plates from another version by Burt dated in the same year. See my comments there. Here there is a different cover (WS in color) and frontispiece (colored "The Cat and the Mice"). The title-page looks as though it is a later impression. It also includes no address for Burt in New York; in fact Burt moved to 114-120 East 23rd Street. The back of the title-page looks like a later impression from the same printing plate. This edition moves the "BW" full-page illustration from after 10 to vii and inserts a colored illustration of BW just after it. It places the black-and-white illustration that had faced the first page of text two pages later. There are in all four crude full-page colored illustrations inserted on unpaginated pages without printing or image on their backs; the others are FG before 11 and FS before 55. Once you get a set of plates for Aesop, do not let them go to waste! At the end of this book, the advertisement for "Burt's Series of One Syllable Books" shows an increment from that placed one page earlier in the other edition. It now offers fourteen instead of twelve titles. (Black Beauty and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are the two titles added before this printing.) Where the price on the other edition said "50 Cents per Volume," this advertisement leaves an open space between "Price" and "Cents per Volume." The bottom of the advertisement gives the new address for Burt.

1895 Aesop's Fables in Words of One Syllable. Mary Godolphin. Percy Billinghurst and Ernest Griset NA. Hardbound. NY: Burt's Series of One Syllable Books: A.L. Burt Company. $5 from an unknown source, August, '07.

This copy replicates another in the collection in almost every respect. The printing of the year 1895 on the verso of the title-page is clearer. Above all, it fills in the price for each book in the series on the very last page of the book. What is there "Price Cents per Volume" is here "Price 65 Cents per Volume." This copy may be older. While the color of its cover is better, its spine is weaker, and its front cover is ragged at the upper edge. As I mentioned there, there are in all four crude full-page colored illustrations inserted on unpaginated pages without printing or image on their backs. Once you get a set of plates for Aesop, do not let them go to waste!

1895 Antologia di Prosa e Poesia Latin. Scelta e annotata ad uso delle scuole da Enrico Cocchia. Parte prima: libri I, II, e III per il ginnasio inferiore. Torino: Ermanno Loescher. Gift of Giuliano Gasca, S.J., Turin, Sept., '97.

This anthology takes two sets of fables from the Müller Teubner edition of 1881. There are fifteen fables in the first book (40-45) and thirty in the second book (93-113), including several at the end from Horace, "Ennio pr. Gellio" (?), and Ovid. The others come from Phaedrus. Copious but simple Italian notes. This paper-covered book has suffered in its century of existence! What a pleasure it was to hunt in the library saved in this Jesuit house in Turin! And how gracious of Fr. Gasca to invite me!

1895 Ctrnactero Bajek LaFontainovych. S Illustracemi od Gustava Doréa. Oversize pamphlet. V Praze: Tiskem a Nakladem Knihtiskarny Dra Ed. Grégra. $8 from Zachary Cohn, Prague, by mail, August, '01.

This oversize pamphlet of sixty-four pages contains excellent reproductions of Doré's full-page illustrations first published some twenty-seven years earlier. Among those here are GA, TMCM, WL, BC, "The Hares and the Frogs," LM, MM, FK, "The Monkey and the Cat," "The Two Goats," "The Angler and the Little Fish," "The Stag Seeing Its Reflection in Water," "The Wolf in Shepherd's Clothing," and FG. There is a T of C at the end. The cover has come loose, and the spine will not last much longer.

1895 Esops Fabler. Fritt Berattade efter LaFontaine, Rundell, Binder M. Fl. samt med illustrationer af Ernest Griset.  Andra Genomsedda Upplagan.  Stockholm: C. & E. Gernandts Forlags-Aktiebolag.  $20 at Yesterday's Memories, June, '87.

1895 Fables and Essays.  John Bryan.  Hardbound.  NY: Arts and Lettres Co.  $38 from Thomas Joyce, Chicago, Dec., '18.

1895 Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern. Thomas Newbigging. Apparent first edition. Hardbound. London: Elliot Stock. $13 from CityBooks, Chattanooga, TN, Jan., '00.

See my comments on my 1972 reprint. This apparent first edition was $2 cheaper than a cheap reprint!

1895 Fables d'Amerique (1880-1881). Par un Ingénieur en Chef Honoraire des Mines. Illustrated by Vimar? Not numbered; limited to 200? Paperbound. Paris: Imprimerie Générale Lahure. $39.50 from House of Odin, Ithaca, NY, through abe, August, '06.

Here is one of the odder members of this collection. This beautiful paperbound book seems to me filled with mysteries. The mysteries start on the title-page, with its lovely colored presentation of a Colorado mornng star plant. The author presents four sets of six fables, as the final T of C demonstrates, taken from the flora and fauna of the two Americas. He dedicates them to "Petit Paul." Thus the first fable, illustrated with a full-page black and white illustration signed by an artist whose work I have admired, Vimar, presents "Le Bison et le Chien de prairie." I wish my French were good enough to know what happens in these strange matchups! Another fine illustration faces 30: "La Tortue et le Caïman." In the illustration, both are weeping. Do not miss "L'Ane de Roquecourbe" (before 43). The ass here has been pulleyed up a tower. A final illustration caught my eye: "Le Serpent Boa et l'Agouti." The boa here is about to engulf a little creature. One of the mysteries here is why a date gets into the title of a book, whose title-page lists a date fourteen years later. A statement facing the title-page says perhaps only that two hundred copies of this book have been kept out of commerce, but then lists "No" without a number. Strange. 

1895 Fábulas de Esopo en Idioma Mexicano. Publicadas por el Dr. Antonio Peñafiel. México: Oficina Tip. de la Secretaría de Fomento. $5 in Goodspeed's Basement, Dec., '89.

A keepsake for those attending the Eleventh Congress of Americanists in Mexico in 1895. Forty-seven fables in a language where a few Spanish words are distinguishable. A surprise find sitting among small books and books of poetry, and of course no one in the bookstore knew that it was there.

1895 Fairy Stories and Fables. James Baldwin. Eclectic Readings. American Book Company. $19.95 at Donaldson's Bookstore, San Antonio, August, '96. Extra copy lacking a title-page for $2.95 at Safari, San Diego, Aug., '93.

A school reader in good condition. About twenty-six fables are presented in the book. While the illustrations for the other offerings vary widely, the fable illustrations are consistent: good small rectangles by an artist whose initials are FJC or FSC. The editor seems to have kept his pledge that in none of the fables has he "altered the generally accepted order of the narrative, or changed the purport of the lesson intended to be taught." Thus I find nothing unusual to report here! In the second copy, unfortunately, 11-14 and 57-8 are gone or badly damaged, and 19-20 and others are torn. The second copy has a pictorial cover.

1895 Introductory Language Work. Alonzo Reed. NY: Maynard, Merrill, and Co. See 1891/95.

1895 Our Childhood's Favorite Library in Words of One Syllable. Mary Godolphin for Aesop. Griset for Aesop. Hardbound. NY: One Syllable Series: The Cassell Publishing Co. $2.88 from Kathy Dublinski, Lockport, NY, through eBay, Nov., '02. 

This stout book has four major sections, devoted to Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver's Travels, and Aesop's Fables. Each segment takes between 87 and 96 pages, and each of the four is numbered separately. The Aesop section seems to reproduce my 1888 edition by Cassell of Godolphin's Aesop's Fables in Words of One Syllable with Illustrations. The spine is weakening on this well-used old book.

1895 Petit Choix de Fables Tirées de nos Principaux Fabulistes. Par Ch. Defodon. Édition Illustrée par Gustave Doré et Wogel. Deuxième Édition. Paperbound. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie. $9 from lesgateaux, Petaluma, CA, through eBay, Jan., '07.

"Avec un Commentaire et des Notes Biographiques et Explicatives a l'Usage des Écoles Primaires." This is a 48-page pamphlet, about 4" x 6½" in size, containing thirty-one fables, as the beginning T of C shows. The same T of C shows that ten each come from La Fontaine and Florian, three from Lachambeaudie, and one each from Madame de la Férandière, Du Tremblay, Viennet, Le Bailly, Bérenger, Houdart de la Motte, Laurent de Jussieu, and Jauffret. Some of the fourteen small black-and-white illustrations are, as the cover and title-page indicate, from Doré. Those pages indicate Wogel as another artist. Is he perhaps involved in the plates signed "Girardet"? Girardet I know extensively. I am not sure I have ever encountered Wogel. It is nice to see a schoolbook pamphlet that has lasted over 110 years!

1895 Phaedri Augusti liberti Fabulae Aesopiae, recensuit usus editione codices Rosanboniani ab Ulixe Robert comparata Ludovicus Havet. Louis Havet/Ludovicus Havet. First edition, signed with an inscription by Havet. Hardbound. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Companie. $60 from Turtle Island Booksellers, Berkeley, Nov., '96.

Havet signs the pre-title-page "Viro amicissimo A. Jacob animo pergrato, L. Havet." I have been working my way through Phaedrus books found over the last few years, and had overlooked this one. In fact, I just worked with the Hachette edition I put under "1920?" and remarked that it used the Havet edition of 1895. Then I stumbled over a book I had left on the floor, and it is Havet from 1895! I should do more stumbling! Carnes begins his description this way: "A monumental critical edition based upon the codex Pithoeanus with a comprehensive survey of the critical work done before him, a thorough discussion of the manuscript tradition, and a complete account of Phaedrus’ metrics (pp. 147-211)." Lamb has a spirited discussion of Havet's edition including these two remarks: "He was as Housman described him 'The most vigilant editor he (Phaedrus) has ever had and the most egoistical he can ever possibly have….' The materials for a good edition of Phaedrus are here, but this is not it." Lamb calls Havet "a product of the golden age of Latin philology." Havet speaks of Phaedrus as Phaeder.

1895 Stories for Children. First Reader Grade. Eclectic School Readings. By Mrs. Charles A. Lane. NY: American Book Company. $4 from Heartwood in Charlottesville, March, '92.

A surprisingly rich reader in good condition. Thirteen fables, nine of them illustrated. The best illustrations are of FC (83) and BW (99). The illustration for GGE (31) shows a chest full of them! FK (49) involves an eel besides the usual log and stork. "The Trees and the Woodcutter" (101) has a surprising moral built in: "When those who are strong fail to take the part of those who are weak they are sure to be the losers for it." Other fables are "The Farmer and the Stork," "The Fly on the Cart Wheel," FG, AD, GA, "The Cat and the Monkey," "The Jackdaw and the Peacock," and "The Rabbit and the Hedgehog." No T of C or index.

1895 Stories from Aulus Gellius. Edited for Sight Reading by Charles Knapp. Pamphlet. NY: American Book Company. Gift of the Classics Section of Creighton University, Summer, '92.

I am aware of one Aesopic fable in this fragile, broken booklet, whose cover and first few pages are loose. Aulus tells the story--"Mother Lark and Her Young" (34-7)--extremely well. Who knows how long I may have had this book sitting around in my effects!

1895 The Classic and the Beautiful from the Literature of Three Thousand Years. By the Authors and Orators of All Countries. Vol. III. Henry Coppée. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Carson & Simpson. $10.00 from Blake Books, Milwaukee, May, '98.

Included in this tome is a very short section "Fables from the Arabian of Lokman the Sage," translated by the editor (440-1). Four good fables are presented here. The first pits a lion against two bulls; in most other versions there are three or four bulls. The second has the lion inviting the bull to dinner for lamb, where the bull sees an immense cooking-pot. The third tells well the story of the lamenting pig, though all the animals are on the back of a beast of burden and not, as usual, in a wagon. There is a strange moral to this fable: "Those who are overwhelmed by the crimes and misdemeanors they have committed should know the fatal destiny reserved for them." What crime did the pig commit? The fourth has a bramble, when fed and cared for, taking over a whole garden. The congeries represented by a book like this has to strike most of us as unusual. The next few things after Lokman are a selection from "Oedipus at Colonus," some poetry, an engraving, and "Chemical Combination, Decomposition and Affinity." Wow!

1895 The Classic and the Beautiful from the Literature of Three Thousand Years. By the Authors and Orators of All Countries. Vol. V. Henry Coppée. Hardbound. Philadelphia: Carson & Simpson. $10.00 from Blake Books, Milwaukee, April, '98.

Included in this tome are two items bearing on fables. First, there is what drew my eye to these books in the first place: an engraving painted by W. Mulready and engraved by J.N. Gimbrede of WL. It has a bullying boy about to beat up another lad against a fence, while a mother and child look on. It is worthy of presenting, at the least to show how common "The Wolf and Lamb" was in 1895. The volume also has a paragraph about Aesop by Thomas Wright on 404. See Volume III for some fables by Lokman. The new owner of Blake Books was at first not sure that he wanted to let me have just two volumes out of the already broken set.

1895 The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by W. Frank Calderon. Hardbound. Cranford Series. London/NY: Macmillan and Co. $9.93 from Skyline Books & Records, Inc, NY, May, ‘96.

This is a good, readable prose version of the Reynard story in twenty-five chapters, with a good introduction and notes. Jacobs had just done an "Aesop" for Macmillan and so naturally turned to a Reynard. He says in his preface that he has attempted to provide a text for children with some indication of folklore and literary history for adults. The text, he says, is a resuscitation and adaptation of "Felix Summerley's" (that is, Henry Cole's) earlier version. As to the material for adults, he provides here only a quick summary of the work of many, a larger version of which he promises in the Bibliotheque de Carabas. The notes are helpful on names and variants like the story only referred to here of Reynard's adultery with Ereswine (Hirsent). This text has provided me with a delightful way to move through a story I am learning better and better. The illustrations occur mostly as parts of text-pages, augmented by ten full-page illustrations with blank verso. Jacobs uses prose throughout. A sample of the smaller illustrations is Tiburt with a crutch and multiple bandages after his bad experience in the priest's barn (50). Another is the silhouette presentation of the march to the gallows on 73. Those who want to read one exciting chapter might want to try XII (74), in which Reynard makes his very skillful "confession" before he is to be hanged. It is a masterpiece of turning hostility into opportunity. The same happens with the two parts of his later defense in XIX (146) and XXI (172). Four fables are described by Reynard as being pictured on a mirror which he says he had entrusted to Bellin to give to the Queen (180-188): stag and horse, ass and dog, fox and cat, and wolf and crane. Of course this "gift" is all a lie! The Reynard of this volume is a thoroughgoing liar and scoundrel! The cover has a lovely gold-embossed illustration of FC. The outer spine is cracking up and falling away.

1895 The Rare Romance of Reynard the Fox, the Crafty Courtier, in Words of One Syllable.  By Samuel Phillips Day.  Hardbound.  NY: A.L. Burt Company.  $7.95 from Powell's, Portland, July, '13.

1895/1902 The Fables of Phaedrus. For the Use of Schools with introduction, notes and vocabulary by the Rev. G[eorge] H[erbert] Nall. Elementary Classics. London: Macmillan and Co. $12.50 through the Advanced Book Exchange from Brown's Books, Sandpoint, ID, Sept., '97.

A small school edition with short notes on grammar and metrics. The Latin text is, as Pack Carnes' Phaedrus bibliography points out, based upon the Alexander Riese 1885 edition, 'expurgated for school use.' The Perotti appendix is omitted. The notes are followed by an extensive Latin-English glossary.

1895/1902 The Heart of Oak Books: First Book. Rhymes, Jingles, and Fables. Edited by Charles Eliot Norton. Illustrators not acknowledged. Boston: D.C. Heath and Co. $2, Aug., '91.

Just past the halfway mark in this first reader, fables appear frequently, ten in all. The boy pulled his "Wolf" joke many times (62). The mice have no assembly against the cat; one just calls out his advice (67). Most surprising of all, the mouse runs right into the lion's mouth and apparently pleads from there (68)! The fables are pleasantly brief. The spine is weak. T of C at the front, AI at the back.

1895/1902 The Heart of Oak Books: First Book.  Charles Eliot Norton.  Hardbound.  Boston/NY/Chicago: D.C. Heath and Co.  €10 from Bode Museum flea market, Berlin, July, '24.

1895/1902/07 The Heart of Oak Books: Second Book. Fables and Nursery Tales. Revised Edition. Edited by Charles Eliot Norton. Illustrator apparently Frank T. Merrill. Boston: D.C. Heath and Co. $5.50 at A-Z Books, North Platte, Jan., '94.

Seven fables are listed as Aesopic and one other is listed as anonymous. The book is in fine condition. There are no independent morals for the fables and no illustrations. Merrill does a good job of illustrating several stories entirely through pictures. T of C at the front, notes and an authors' index at the back.

1895/1923 Fairy Stories and Fables. James Baldwin. Hardbound. American Book Company. $7.50 at the Missouri Valley Antique Mall, Missouri Valley, Iowa, March, '13.

Here is the 1923 reprinting of an 1895 original. The cover, title-page, and the verso of the title-page have been reset. The series "Eclectic Readings" is no longer mentioned, as it was on the cover there. Otherwise the book seems identical. As I wrote there, this is a school reader in good condition. About twenty-six fables are presented in the book. While the illustrations for the other offerings vary widely, the fable illustrations are consistent: good small rectangles by an artist whose initials are FJC or FSC. The editor seems to have kept his pledge that in none of the fables has he "altered the generally accepted order of the narrative, or changed the purport of the lesson intended to be taught." Thus I find nothing unusual to report here!

1895/1972 Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern. Thomas Newbigging. Essay Index Reprint Series. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press. $15 at Powell's Bookstore in Chicago, Spring, '86.

This book is delightful in its stodginess. Newbigging makes a good argument that Aesop was not ugly. Other than that the book is quite insubstantial, I think. It retells some fables well. There are chapters on modern fabulists.

1895? Aesop's Fables. No author or illustrator mentioned. Illustrations are from Doré, Griset, Tenniel, and at least one other. Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co. $25 by mail from Richard Kopp, Fort Dodge, Fall, '95.

This book compares most closely with my 1896 Aesop's Fables from Donohue, Henneberry, and Company. See my comments there. This book has a strange first page with four rabbits around a cartoon of grandpa kicking a football. Though "Henneberry" is not included in the company's name, the address is the same as in the 1896 edition. At the end of the book, there is a picture of two children on the back cover. There is no AI, as there is in the 1896 edition. This edition prints on the back of 157 and thus runs for 158, not 159, pages. The printing in this book is terribly smudged throughout. I challenge a reader to identify the subject represented on 115! A particular feature of this edition is its use of full-page generic illustrations of animals (e.g. "Bees Swarming" [127] and "Battle in the Polar Regions" [182]). Donohue's 1892? Aesop's Fables had added similar illustrations. The third book to draw into comparison is Donohue's 1893? Aesop's Fables. Both of the latter are shorter than this and the 1896 version.

1895? Favorite Fables. Illustrations by Gustave Doré, NA. Texts by Walter Thornbury, NA. Clothbound. NY: Hurst & Company. $18 from Rebecca Finsel, Lehighton, PA, through Ebay, Jan., '00.

This is a very curious book. Neither its title, cover, nor title-page gives indication that it is La Fontaine's fables that are presented here, though that is clear at the top of most pages within the book. Nor is there any acknowledgement that the illustrations are taken straight from Gustave Doré. A third little mystery concerns two misnumberings. What should be Fable XXVI on 68-69 is rather CXLIII on 399-400. What should be the last fable, LXXX on 230-31 is CLXXXI on (525)-526. The verse translation is Walter Thornbury's, again unacknowledged. The book stands as a tour-de-force of late-nineteenth-century rip-off publishing! I am surprised that the book even tells us who the publisher was! The covers are boards joined by a canvas spine. The front cover's image is a standard chromolithograph of the time, a dramatic view of the wolf looking down at the lamb in the foreground. There is a colored full-page illustration of two children and a cat before the black-and-white frontispiece of "The Monkey and the Cat." This illustration seems to have nothing to do with fables. The Doré images are often quite faintly printed. The book itself is in poor condition. The paper is very brittle, and the bottom inch of the spine is gone.

1895? Favorite Fables. Illustrations by Gustave Doré, NA. Texts by Walter Thornbury, NA. Clothbound. NY: Hurst & Company. NY: Hurst & Company. $9.99 from Dallas Dowhower, Newport, PA, through Ebay, July, '00.

This book is almost the same as another from the same publisher with the same title, also listed under "1895?" This book has the same curious suppression of mention of La Fontaine on the cover and title-page, and it maintains the same silence about Thornbury's translation and Doré's illustrations. Further, it has the same two pagination/numeration problems mentioned there. What should be Fable XXVI on 68-69 is rather CXLIII on 399-400. What should be the last fable, LXXX on 230-31 is CLXXXI on (525)-526. What then is different here? First, the front cover shows not WL but rather the wolf dressed as shepherd. Second, the back cover features a black-and-white illustration of two children with a doll-buggy. Third, there is no colored illustration before the frontispiece, though of course one may have fallen out or been removed. (I did find some dried flowers buried in the binding there!) This book is in better condition than that one. Again, the covers are boards joined by a canvas spine.

1895? Favorite Fables. Thornbury NA. Doré NA. Hardbound. NY: Hurst & Company. $13.06 from mg279w1, Woodson, IL, through eBay, Sept., '05. 

Here is a third different copy of basically the same book. It is identical in publisher and title with them. I am listing it, for the sake of coherence, under the same date as them, even though this book has helped to date all three to a time before then. This book is inscribed "Dec 6, 1892." This book has the same curious suppression of mention of La Fontaine on the cover and title-page, and it maintains the same silence about Thornbury's translation and Doré's illustrations. This book seems to have corrected one pagination and numbering problem from those two editions, dealing with Fable XXVI on 68-69. But part of a similar problem remains. What should be the last fable, LXXX on 230-31, is CLXXXI. This book has improved upon those by not mispaginating this fable. The front covers of those two books show WL and the wolf dressed as shepherd, respectively. This book's cover shows four colored scenes--MSA, "The Cats, the Cheese, and the Monkey," DS, and FS. These four scenes are well illustrated, but the scenes are not the Doré scenes used inside the book. The back cover features a colored illustration of two children with a book. As in the book with wolf and shepherd on the cover, there is no colored illustration here before the frontispiece, though of course one may have fallen out or been removed. This book is in poor condition. The canvas spine has all but disappeared. The well-worn covers are hanging on by threads. This book once belonged to Lizzie Callan in Parnell, Iowa.

1895? Jack and Jill. Profusely Illustrated. Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co. $19 at Swiss Village, St. Louis, March, '95.

This book represents a great find on a lightning shopping visit over the lunch break of a Jesuit meeting. The book is in terrible condition, with virtually no spine left at all and all the pages loose. This curious book can best be understood as a combination of material found in my 1885? Lupton Fairy Land Tales Told Long Ago and my 1884 Lothrop Selections from Aesop's Fables. Part of the book's strangeness is that Jack and Jill (found in Lupton) is the only non-fable in the whole book! I am very lucky to have found the book! After that story comes first a full page illustration of a fable not presented here ("In the Cat's Court of Appeals") signed by M. Stephens (?). Then come five presentations of Aesopic fables in verse by Clara Doty Bates, all found in Lothrop. The first and last are illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett, while Childe Hassam did TMCM. TMCM adds one page (the second) out of the two pages of panels added to TMCM in Lupton, with the numbers of the panels (7-12) now removed. I will leave it to the reader to judge how much sense these six pictures make as they appear suddenly on their own--probably as much sense as a picture of a cat judge ready to eat both litigants (a bunny and a weasel) next to a fable about how a monkey cheats two cat litigants. Pick up a rock and you will find something underneath it!

1895? Little Bo-Peep. Profusely Illustrated. Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co. $3 at Stillwater Book Center, Stillwater, MN, Jan., '97.

Here is another Donohue surprise—a book, like Jack and Jill (1895?) that contains only the title-story and fables. This book has the same cover border, the same back cover, and the same Mother Goose endpapers as that book. Its selection of fables surprises me because it seems to complement carefully the selection of fables there. Though they seem to draw on the same sources (see my comments there), there are no repeaters here. After "Little Bo-Peep" there are four fables, three of which ("The Larks and the Farmer," FS, and BW) identify their texts as by Clara Doty Bates. The fourth, TH, has illustrations by Childe Hassam. The first fable is curious for presenting first a full-page illustration by one hand, titled "The Larks and the Farmers." Then come five pages with the title "The Larks and the Farmer" and illustrations by a different hand. Other than Bates and Hassam, I cannot identify the author and artists. There is some material missing at the end, including the finish of BW and one of the endpapers. This book has no spine left. All its pages are separated. Still, I was lucky to get it at this price!

1895? My Book of Fables. No author or illustrator acknowledged. The Children's Favourite Series. London: Edward Arnold. $18.50 from Yoffees, March, '92. Extra copy for £12 from St. Marys Bookshop, Stamford, England, through ABE, May, '00.

The 108 fables here seem pretty dull to me. The morals are simple. A random sample suggests that Croxall lies somewhere behind these texts but is not a verbatim source. There are frequent rectangular engravings; the best of them may be the frontispiece on SW. Many plates seem to be signed "SIMEIG." The choice and tellings seem representative for the turn of the century. T of C at the front. There are some non-Aesopic fables along the way. There are ten fables in verse at the end, including SW told (again!) in the poorer way. This is one of the few places in which I have found "The Arab and the Camel" told as a fable (31); it is likewise repeated in verse (155). Advertisements at the back hawk books to be given out as prizes. The estimate of the date comes from What I Cannot Tell My Mother Is Not Fit for Me to Know (1981), which uses a number of these fables. The extra copy has a different cover and spine, involving some red with two shades of blue. It may be in better condition than the original. The books appear to be identical inside. I will keep both in the collection. The first copy was sold originally by Watson in Leeds.

1895? New Fables for Boys and Girls.  William J. Forster.  Various artists.  Hardbound.  London: Charles H. Kelly.  $16.84 from Plumtreemill, Bridlington, UK, through Etsy, Dec., ‘20.  

1895? The Fables of Aesop. Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. Done into Pictures by Richard Heighway. On spine: New Beverly Edition. NY: Home Book Company. See 1894/95?.

1895? The Fables of Aesop with a Life of the Author. Herrick. Hardbound. NY: Oxford Edition: John W. Lovell Co. $5 from Laurie, Minneapolis, July, '85.

Herrick's illustrations for Aesop were much reproduced, it seems to me. This is one of three different versions of the "Oxford Edition" that presents his designs, one each for one-hundred-and-ten fables. All these editions stem from the original 1865 edition by Hurd and Houghton (Bodemann #334). As she says, the author of the prose versions is unknown. The "applications" are often longer than the fables! I find Herrick generally noble rather than imaginative. I think that he is at his best here when he is most dramatic. Two examples are WSC on 64 and CW on 218. This copy has a tan cloth cover with a medallion of a horse in the middle of the front cover and of the spine. Beneath each there is a banner -- though different in the two places -- proclaiming "Oxford Edition." There is some gold work on the spine. Compare the similar blue-cloth-cover edition and the plain blue cover edition.

1895? The Fables of Aesop with a Life of the Author. Herrick. Hardbound. NY: Oxford Edition: John W. Lovell Co. $7.50 at Booksellers Row, Chicago, Sept., '91.

Here is the copy with a blue cover otherwise identical with a version with a tan-colored cover. Did the publisher himself change the color or form of the cover as he ran out of this or that material? I take it that we are in a phase of publishing where binding is rather new to the publishing house. Let me repeat my comments from the tan-covered copy. Herrick's illustrations for Aesop were much reproduced, it seems to me. This is one of three different versions of the "Oxford Edition" that presents his designs, one each for one-hundred-and-ten fables. All these editions stem from the original 1865 edition by Hurd and Houghton (Bodemann #334). As she says, the author of the prose versions is unknown. The "applications" are often longer than the fables! I find Herrick generally noble rather than imaginative. I think that he is at his best here when he is most dramatic. Two examples are WSC on 64 and CW on 218. This copy has a blue cloth cover with a medallion of a horse in the middle of the front cover and of the spine. Beneath each there is a banner -- though different in the two places -- proclaiming "Oxford Edition." There is some gold work on the spine. Compare the similar tan-cloth-cover edition and the plain blue cover edition.

1895? The Fables of Aesop with a Life of the Author. Herrick. Hardbound. NY: Oxford Edition: John W. Lovell Co. $8 from Aspidistra, Chicago, July, '87.

Here is the copy with a plain blue cover identical on the inside with copies with tan and blue covers featuring Oxford Edition in a medallion on both the cover and the spine. This plainer copy has nothing on the dark blue cover and on its spine the title, "Oxford Edition," and a small gryphon. Did the publisher himself change the color or form of the cover as he ran out of this or that material? I take it that we are in a phase of publishing where binding is rather new to the publishing house. Let me repeat my comments from the other copies. Herrick's illustrations for Aesop were much reproduced, it seems to me. This is one of three different versions of the "Oxford Edition" that presents his designs, one each for one-hundred-and-ten fables. All these editions stem from the original 1865 edition by Hurd and Houghton (Bodemann #334). As she says, the author of the prose versions is unknown. The "applications" are often longer than the fables! I find Herrick generally noble rather than imaginative. I think that he is at his best here when he is most dramatic. Two examples are WSC on 64 and CW on 218. I notice in dealing with this copy that the printer of all three, S.J. Parkhill in Boston, is the same.

1895? The Hare and the Tortoise. Pamphlet. London: Aunt Louisa's London Toy Books #26: Frederick Warne & Co., Kronheim & Co. $36.06 from Cattermole Books, Newbury, OH, through Ebay, Oct., '99.

This is a very large (10½" x 9") pamphlet whose binding has been stitched. The backs of both text and illustration pages are not printed. Six magnificent full-page Kronheim chromolithographs grace these pages. A long story (subtitled "New Version") is told apparently by a father to some children, as we learn in the last paragraph, when young Frank tells papa not to offer a moral since "we know all about that." Tortums the tortoise says to Tibby, the braggart hare, "If nobody else will race you, I will, for two miles." Many animals accompany Tortums along the path, even tiptoeing past the sleeping hare. The tiptoeing was particularly difficult for Tiggy, the sow! As seems typical, there is a large list of Warne's available publications on the back cover. Is "Kronheim & Co." listed as printer rather than publisher?

1895? Three Hundred Aesop's Fables. Literally translated from the Greek by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend. With fifty illustrations by Harrison Weir. London and NY: George Routledge and Sons. See 1885?/95?.

1895? Tiny Tot's Book of Fables. Large pamphlet in stiff wraps. London: S.W. Partridge & Co. $79 from Alibris, Sept., '00.

This large (about 8¼" x 11") pamphlet with stiff wraps reminds me of the Aunt Louisa series done by one of Partridge's competitors. This booklet is inscribed in 1895. It is in good condition. It includes ten fables that take up a part of a page and are illustrated with proportionally sized monochrome illustrations. There are also six full-page chromolithograph illustrations, two of which include the short fable text at their base, and the other four of which have their text between the others on the facing page. The chromolithographs (DS, LM, DM, FG, TH, and "The Boys and the Frogs") are nicely done and surprisingly well preserved. The bear pays with many stings for stealing honey that did not belong to him. The moral here of GGE is "It is never worth while to give up that which is sure for that which is uncertain." The shepherd boy has cried "Wolf!" many times. The children in one circle on the cover set up an infinite series by reading this book, and so there must be on the cover of their book two children reading a book on whose cover….

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1896 A Manual of Aesopic Fable Literature: A First Book of Reference for the Period Ending A.D. 1500. George C. Keidel. Paperbound. Baltimore: Romance and Other Studies, Number Two: The Friedenwald Company. $10 from E.D. Zamarin, Antiquarian Books, Baltimore, through eBay, Oct., '02. 

I have the 1972 Burt Franklin reprint, apparently of this very piece of work. It is here labeled "First Fascicule," but I suspect that it is the only fascicle that saw print. This 76-page publication offers painstaking Germanic documentation of the incunabula, including lists by their authors, the cities where they were printed, their printers, sizes, languages, the cities where they are preserved, and even the prices brought by them. Apparently this short work was meant to be an introduction to a lengthy second manual that probably never appeared. Even Keidel himself formulates a big "if" in the introduction: "Should the present Manual some day reach completion, a vast mass of the dry bones of literary history will no doubt have therein been presented" (viii). The front cover has separated in this short paperbound work.

1896 Aesop's Fables. No author or illustrator mentioned. Illustrations are from Doré, Griset, Tenniel, and Delierre. Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry, and Co. $22.50 at St. Croix Booksellers in Clearwater, Nov., '92. Extra copy with different cover and cheaper paper for $8 from Delavan booksellers, Dec., '86.

This large-format book may be the best example in my collection of eclecticism and "borrowing" of established illustrations in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century book publishing. At least three great Aesopic artists are represented here, and the only clue to them lies in the occasional signature within a plate. (Note that many of the Tenniels here are signed by the engraver, Howland). The full-page illustrations are not printed on the back, though both front and back count as pages. Delierre is the originator at least of 127's view of MSA; Tenniel and Griset's work on the same fable is mixed together on 129. The text appears in two columns. New to me is "The Ant and the Chrysalis" (141). Index on 160. The good copy is in very good condition except for the weakened spine; it has lovely gold and black inlay on its brown cover. The extra copy has a very weak binding and colorful boards for covers.

1896 Aesop's Fables (With 200 Illustrations): Books for the Bairns -I. Edited by W.T. Stead. First edition. Pamphlet. Printed in England. London: Books for the Bairns.-I: "Review of Reviews" Office. £6.50 from Stella Books, Tintern, United Kingdom, Dec., '98.

Pink pictorial paper wraps. Each of the sixty fables listed in the beginning T of C has from two to five small black-and-white illustrations that are most similar to the old "transfers" we played with as children. As in the "New Series" by the same editor and publisher (1899?), there are excellent sub-titles for each of the fables. Here are some of the best: "The Lion and the Bulls; or, When Friends Quarrel Foes Profit" (7); "The Trees and the Axe; or, To Sacrifice the Poor Endangers the State" (26); "The Fox and the Grapes; or, Make the Best of What You Can't Help" (35); "The Wolf and the Crane; or, Get Your Fee Before You Make Your Cure" (45); and "The Lion, the Ass, and the Fox Hunting; or, Lawless Might Breeds Crafty Slaves" (54). Apparently, Stead could find no proverb for "The Viper and the File" (40). The four images for "Venus and the Cat" (37) tell the tale very well. Again here, the typesetter worked very hard to make sure that no reader would have to turn a page in order to finish a fable. On 18-19, on 20-21, and again on 28-29 a short and a long fable are paired up to make a two-page spread. This fragile booklet belongs to "ephemera," and I am delighted now to have found a copy of both volumes.

1896 Chansons, Poésies et Jeux Français pour les Enfants Americains. Composés et Recueillis par Agnes Godfrey Gay. NY: William R. Jenkins. $10 at Strand, May, '91.

Pages 46-7 present a fuller musical version of "Autrefois le Rat de Ville" than one finds, for example, in Chansons de France pour les Petits Francais (1870?), where verses after the first are given in prose. Note the slight change in the fourth verse. This book labels the song as from La Fontaine.

1896 Choix de Fables de Samaniego et de Iriarte avec Notices Biographiques et Litteraires.  A. Rosies.  Hardbound.  Paris: Garnier Frères.  €8.50 from Libreria Anticuaria Jerez, Madrid, Spain, through abe, May, '15.

1896 Fables Choisies de J.-P. Claris de Florian, Premiere & Deuxième Série. Illustrées par des Artistes Japonais sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Bound in leather. Paris: Librairie Marpon & Flammarion. $250 from Raymond Martin, New Bedford, MA, by mail, June, '00.

Bodemann 375.2. These two volumes bound together seem to belong to this second listing of Bodemann's (and not to 375.1) because the size fits (20 x 15 cm.), but not all of her description seems to fit. This is another crepe-paper (or rice-paper?) edition, like that which I have of Barboutau's 1894 La Fontaine. Notice that Flammarion has yielded to Marpon & Flammarion. I also have a second copy of this edition in two unbound volumes. I will list them separately. This copy has better runs of the art than those. Particularly excellent are the illustrations for: "L'Aveugle et le Paralytique"; "Le Grillon"; "Le Phénix"; "Le Rossignol et le Prince"; "Le Sanglier et les Rossignols"; "Les deux Paysans et le Nuage"; "Le Paon, les deux Oisons et le Plongeon"; "Le Lapin et la Sarcelle"; "La Guenon, le Singe et la Noix"; "Les deux Voyageurs"; and "Les deux Chauves." This book has a beautifully tooled leather cover featuring flowers of various colors. This edition is not numbered, though both inside front-covers speak of a limited edition of 200 copies on Japanese Ho-sho paper.

1896 Fables Choisies de J.-P. Claris de Florian, Premiere Série. Illustrées par des Artistes Japonais sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Tied binding. Paris: Librairie Marpon & Flammarion. £127.5 from Ripping Yarns, Highgate, April, '97. Extra copy for $50 from The Literary Cat, Sebastopol, CA, May, '04.

Bodemann 375.2. The friendly people at Ripping Yarns found this pair of volumes while I was off getting money for the great things I had already found. They were not sure that I would want it, and they were also not sure that they wanted to sell it. I can see why! See my comments on the single leather-bound volume that includes both parts of this edition. This copy is the same size (20 x 15 cm) and also uses crepe-paper (or rice-paper?). The illustrations generally are not as sharp in this copy, which shows more wear. Even one degree more worn, they are brilliant! If a reader wanted to visit one new and very dramatic illustration here, let it be "Le Milan et le Pigeon." There is again indication of a deluxe limited edition of 200 copies on Japanese Ho-sho paper, which seems not to include the present volume. These are such exquisite volumes that I will keep both copies in the collection, especially since each has some advantages over the other.

1896 Fables Choisies de J.-P. Claris de Florian, Deuxième Série. Illustrées par des Artistes Japonais sous la Direction de P. Barboutau. Tied binding. Paris: Librairie Marpon & Flammarion. £127.5 from Ripping Yarns, Highgate, April, '97. Extra copy for $100 at Brattle Books, Boston, Oct., '03.

Bodemann 375.2. The friendly people at Ripping Yarns found this pair of volumes while I was off getting money for the great things I had already found. They were not sure that I would want it, and they were also not sure that they wanted to sell it. I can see why! See my comments on the single leather-bound volume that includes both parts of this edition. This copy is the same size (20 x 15 cm) and also uses crepe-paper (or rice-paper?). The illustrations generally are not as sharp in this copy, which shows more wear. Even one degree more worn, they are brilliant! If a reader wanted to visit one new and very dramatic illustration here, let it be "Le Philosophe et le Chat-Huant." There is again indication of a deluxe limited edition of 200 copies on Japanese Ho-sho paper, which seems not to include the present volume. These are such exquisite volumes that I will keep both copies in the collection, especially since each has some advantages over the other.

1896 Fables for Little Folk.  Hardbound.  London: George Philip and Son.  £7.99 from World of Rare Books, May, '14.  

1896    Fables for the Times.  Henry Wallace Phillips.  Illustrated by T.R. Sullivant.  Hardbound.  NY: New York Times.  $40 from Coolectible, Fort Collins, CO, through Ebay, Oct., '18.

Earlier I found a publish-on-demand Xerox of this book without its illustrations.  Now I am delighted to find an original, 8½" x 12" in landscape format.  Alas, it is in poor condition, without a title-page, and so I guess at some of the bibliographical data.  Pages are loose and torn, and 17-18 and 31-34 are missing – but I am delighted to have found this book.  I will guess that it is an 1896 original and that the "Times" is the New York Times.  There is some help from Project Gutenberg, where one can also find the illustrations.  As I wrote then, what we have here are twenty standard Aesopic or Aesopic-like fables cleverly turned to contemporary humorous purposes, often summed up in a clever proverbial "immoral."  The book seems to me much in the spirit of Bierce, and that is a very clever spirit!  In DS, the dog stopped to think about angles and refractions, decided that what he was seeing were "only optical phenomena," and "trotted on his way to Boston without further thought on the matter" (8).  "A fox stood under an apple-tree and gazed up earnestly at the globes of yellow lusciousness.  'How sad, for the sake of an old-time piece of literature,' he said, 'that the fox is a carnivorous animal and doesn't care particularly about fruit!'" (10).  The fox said that with a voice the crow would rank with prima donnas.  The crow dropped the meat on his head, blinded him, and pecked him viciously.  She was distressed to be compared with "them shameless French singing hussies"!  Moral: "Don't praise the soft whiteness of a labor delegate's hands" (12).  The thirsty wolf asks the young lamb to bring him water.  She does, with some knock-out drops in it (22)!

1896 Fables of Aesop. Text by Joseph Jacobs NA. Illustrations by Richard Heighway NA. London: Churchill Road. $19.50 from ellenbks, Cumberland, ME, through Ebay, Sept., '99.

Here is a lovely little advertising book with material lifted straight from the Jacobs/Heighway edition of 1894, right down to emblems and frontispiece. The advertising is for Tetley's Teas, and A.W. Miller of Auburn, ME, makes it clear on both front and back cover that he will be glad to sell you the full line. The four distinct classes of teas are listed and described on the inside back cover. This two-staple pamphlet is in good condition. FC is pictured on the cover but not presented inside. Ten of Jacobs' stories are presented, with the full complement of Heighway's art: BC, LM, "The Wolf and the Kid," "The Peacock and Juno," OF, "The Man and the Serpent," 2P, "The Fisher and the Little Fish," "The Tortoise and the Birds," and TH.

1896 Fifty Fables for The Young Folks, Metrically Translated from the German of Julius Sturm, With a Few Fables from Aesop. (Cover: Fifty Fables for Children). Hardbound. Chicago: Fine Art Series: Donohue, Henneberry & Co. $36 from H.F.T. Books and Collectibles, Framingham, MA, through Ebay, May, '99. Extra copy in poorer condition for $25 from The Collectors Gallery, Cedarburg, WI, Nov., '99.  It lacks the TB illustration and several pages. And a better copy for $9.99 from Kate's Vintage Cottage, Elgin, IL, Oct., '11, through eBay.

Sturm is new to me. The Aesopic fables (these and a few others are in prose) are identified as such under their titles, and reference is made where appropriate to one of the six colored illustrations. Each verse fable gets an engraving; they are signed "Alinzen," "FFlinzen," or something similar. The new fables feature generally predictable pairings of animals: thus a patient cat kills an impatient snake; a rusty weather cock no longer turns with every wind; the traveler who pays no attention to barking dogs is soon rid of them; and a dog cannot overcome a patient hedgehog's defenses. Several fables recognizably Aesopic are done in verse: DM; "The Three Oxen" (in which it is the fox's role to divide the oxen, whereupon the lion devours them); "The Horse and the Ass"; and "The Donkey and the Lion." FM is told differently, without reference to water. The mouse is ready to carry the frog overland by a string tied to both when a hawk swoops in. As the string breaks, the hawk catches the frog and eats him. My favorites include the fox who plays the hermit; when people come to him, he "prays" these words: "mundus vult decipi." His visitors say "'Tis Latin, we are blest" and bring him offerings! Another is "The Wolf's Vow." Caught by a farmer, a wolf vows henceforth to eat only fish. He promptly hears a pig in a pool and declares "Whatever swishes/In the water must be fishes." Six excellent, rich chromolithographs: "The Lion, the Fox, and the Dead Ass"; WL; "The Fox and the Woodcutter"; FC; TB; and WC. I am sure that I have seen these chromolithographs before, but I cannot find them among the 14 other editions I have catalogued from Donohue. The TB illustration includes a bear and a cub. Unpaginated. ©1896 by Koerner & Hayes. Since all three copies are in fragile condition, I will keep them all in the collection with the same ID number.

1896 Fifty Famous Stories Retold. By James Baldwin. Few illustrations; illustrators not acknowledged. NY: American Book Company. $.33 at Antiquarium, Oct., '90. Extra copy with a different cover inscribed in 1921 for $7.95 from Renaissance Bookstore, Palo Alto, Feb., '97.

Here is a first edition of the book I found a year ago in the 1924 edition. It is in better condition, has a more traditional cover, and offers delightful advertisements at the end. This book cost $.02 more when it was new a century ago! The second copy has the same cover as the 1924 edition but on greener cover stock.

1896 Lorenzo Pignotti: Favole. scelte ad uso della gioventù dal sac. Prof. Celestino Durando. Edizione settima. Biblioteca della Gioventù Italiana. Torino: Tipografia e Libreria Salesiana. Gift of Rev. Giuliano Gasca, S.J., Turin, Sept., '97.

How nice to find a fable-pamphlet published in Turin in this discarded Jesuit library in Turin! It contains sixty-eight fables in Italian verse. Some of them seem to be traditional fables or at least traditional fable subjects (e.g., GA and TMCM). Pignotti lived from 1739 until 1812, as the foreword indicates. The book once was the property of the Jesuit Juniors' Library. T of C at the end.

1896 The Book of Good Counsels from the Sanskrit of the "Hitopadesa". By Sir Edwin Arnold. With Illustrations by Gordon Brown. Hardbound. London: Author's Autograph Edition: W.H. Allen and Co., Limited. £24 from Elizabeth Gant, Surrey, UK, through ABE, Dec., '99.

This seems to be a good standard telling of the Hitopadesa. The opening T of C lists individual fables. In this version the merchant brings his wife on the second evening of the month of arranged assignations (49); it takes him only one viewing to be greedy to get the gifts that the king gave the woman of the first evening. The crow and the rat walk to the tortoise's pond. At the beginning of the second chapter, "Lusty-Life" the bull breaks a foreleg. In the story of the monkey and wedge, his tail and lower parts dangle down between the pieces of wood (59). The scene is well pictured in the facing insert. Lusty-Life is put in charge of provisions when the jackals are discovered to be consuming and disposing of more than their share of the kill. This second chapter ends with the killing of the bull. What happens to the jackals is not addressed. In this version, the wheelwright duped by his wife hidden in his wife's chamber hears her praise of him and rushes out of hiding to ask her lover if he had ever seen a truer wife than this (97)! In the third chapter, "War," the swan ("Silversides") has as his main minister a goose, and the inciting incident is that a crane from his kingdom happens to fly in peacock territory. This crane is sent back as a spy, and a paddy-bird, a form of crane, is commissioned to fortify the fortress. The peacock has a vulture for a minister, a cock for a general, and a parrot for an ambassador. A crow also shows up as a guest at the swan's court. The parrot commands obeisance or withdrawal from Camphor-island. King Swan refuses. The peacock advances rashly against the swan-people, contrary to the vulture's advice. The crane and his fellows wreak havoc on the peacock's realm. The crows are indeed traitors and burn the besieged citadel of the swan-king. The paddy-bird defends the king in the last hour and helps him escape but dies himself. The peacock captures the fortress. In the fourth book, the swan king first ascertains whose treason had cost him the loss of his fort, namely that of the crows. The two kings end up creating a good peace. The inserted verses are done in rhyme. The twenty illustrations here include seven full-page inserts. One of the more dramatic of these--the lion's killing of the bull in front of the jackals--is listed as a frontispiece but actually appears facing 55, at the beginning of its chapter. The frontispiece is the signed picture of Edwin Arnold. The other illustrations are integrated with print on text-pages. A strong example shows the crane with the crab in his mouth (124). This edition does a nice job with the names of individual animals and towns. There are notes at the back.

1896 The Fables of La Fontaine. Translated from the French. By Elizur Wright. A New Edition, with notes by J.W.M. Gibbs. Bohn's Standard Library. London: George Bell and Sons. See 1881?/96.

1896/1924 Fifty Famous Stories Retold. By James Baldwin. Few illustrations; illustrators not acknowledged. NY: American Book Company. $.50 in Omaha, Nov., '89.

At last I find the source from which Baldwin's "Androclus and the Lion" (87) is so often taken. Also included: "Socrates and his House" (112). For the former, C.E. Hubbell does a standard illustration. The book is a good example of what people early in this century would have thought were the most important stories from our history.

1896/1967 The Hitopadesa of Narayana. Edited with a Sanskrit commentary "Marma Prakashika" and notes in English by M.R. Kale. Paperback. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. $15 from Books Abound, Farmington, MI, May, '98.

There are three major sections to this book. First there is the Sanskrit text, apparently with an apparatus criticus. Then there are 124 pages of English translation. Finally there are 54 pages, newly paginated, of extensive notes in English. The English text does not offer much help in its formatting. The quoted verses seem to follow the same formatting as everything else. Individual fables are given titles just above their texts. The translation follows an unusual--and I would say difficult--style. Alternate expressions, literal meanings, supplied words, and other material are given in parentheses. It is hard to find a sentence without parentheses. The covers are made of paper pasted on boards. The paper is coming loose here, especially around the book's spine.

1896/1972 A Manual of Aesopic Fable Literature. George C. Keidel. NY: Lenox Hill: Burt Franklin. $12 at Second Story Books, DC, Feb., '91. Also a xerox facsimile from another publisher: Genève: Slatkine Reprints, done from the Boston College library copy, April, '89. Publisher of original not acknowledged (Johns Hopkins Press?).

Painstaking Germanic documentation of the incunabula, with notations on who has seen the editions. Apparently the introduction to a lengthy second Manual that probably never appeared.

1896? Aesop's Fables.  Gustave Doré, Ernst Griset, John Tenniel, and A. Delierre.  Hardbound.  Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry, and Co.  Gift of Tom Joyce in Chicago, Dec., '18. 

1896? Damhegion Esop (Gyda 200 O Ddarluniau) (Aesop's Fables with 200 Illustrations). Edited by W.T. Stead. First Welch language editiion. Paperbound. Caernarfon, Wales: Swyddfa'r "Genedi Gymreig." £15 from John Eggeling, Lancashire, England, August, '05.

This book reproduces Books for the Bairns -I that Stead published as the first volume in his "Books for the Bairns" series in 1896. The page count (62) and illustrations are identical. This copy has glazed pictorial paper cover boards, and its spine has disintegrated. The front cover has separated from the book. This copy has an advertisement for "Books for the Bairns" on its last page. That advertisement lists twenty issues in the series, while the "Books for the Bairns" copy of its first issue that I have lists twenty-one issues in the series. There are six pages of advertisements at the close of this book. Cadbury's Cocoa is also prominent on the top of the front cover of this offering. I will include comments I made on the "Books for the Bairns" copy. Each of the sixty fables listed in the beginning T of C has from two to five small black-and-white illustrations that are most similar to the old "transfers" we played with as children. There are sub-titles for each of the fables. The four images for "Venus and the Cat" (37) tell the tale very well. Again here, the typesetter worked very hard to make sure that no reader would have to turn a page in order to finish a fable. On 18-19, on 20-21, and again on 28-29 a short and a long fable are paired up to make a two-page spread. See also the "New Series" by the same editor and publisher (1899?), the "Second Series" (1902?), the 1911 republication by the Palmer Company, and the republication (1911?) by Stead's Publishing House. My, one little book developed quite a history! 

1896? Fables Choisies de J.-P. Claris de Florian, Premiere & Deuxième Série.  Sous la Direction de P. Barboutau.  Illustrées par des Artistes Japonais.  Softbound.  Paris: Librairie Marpon & Flammarion.  $975 from Justin Schiller, NY, Jan., '17.

1896? Fables de LaFontaine.  Canvas bound.  Paris: Bernardin-Béchet & Fils.  $60 from La Libraire Antique through Ebay, Jan., '21.

1896? Nursery Rhymes & Fables. Collected & Illustrated by W.J. Morgan. Hardbound. NY: E. & J.B. Young & Co. $33.56 from Harry and Sheila Savell, Yuma, AZ, through eBay, Sept., '05. Extra copy in better condition, from an unknown source, April, '11.

This 64-page book is in fragile condition, but it has beautiful chromolithograph (?) illustrations! As the beginning T of C shows, there are some twenty-one nursery rhymes and eleven fables. Many pages are loose, but they all seem to be present. Colored illustrations and black-and-white alternate on pairs of pages, so that we are always looking at two pages that are colored or two that are illustrated in black-and-white. The fables start on 47-48 with FS. For these early fables, there is one picture before or after the fable's text. Thus on 50 there is a dramatic picture of the kite grasping both frog and mouse aloft--the text of that fable has just finished before we turned the page--and on 51 there is a picture of a dog crying on a bridge over a stream. Turning the page shows us why when Morgan illustrates DS and gives us a text for the fable. These are classic colored illustrations! Two of the best are FG and DM on 62 and 63, respectively. I do not know where the eBay seller got the date of 1896, although it seems likely enough. I have now a better second copy and will keep both in the collection; both are fragile.

1897 Aesop's Fables: A New Edition with Proverbs and Applications. Samuel Croxall. With over One Hundred Illustrations. Hardbound. London: Bliss, Sands & Co. Gift of June Cllinton, April, '96. Extra copy for £22 from Stella Books, Monmouthshire, UK, Dec., '98.

It is strange that I had not found this book until 1996 and within a few years have found it two more times in slightly different versions--one the extra here and one a copy by Stokes in NY, listed under "1910?" This is a curious and engaging book. It uses Croxall's narratives for its one hundred and ten fables. In the words of the unsigned introduction, "in place of some of the long, dull, and far-fetched applications, it has been thought well to append short passages from good writers, bearing some affinity to the moral of the fable" (xx). These related literary passages make for fascinating reflection and would merit closer study. They are certainly an improvement on Croxall's applications! The illustrations, uniform rectangles about 3½" x 4¼", follow Barlow and sometimes retain his vigor and his detail. More frequently, they appear a mannered version of Barlow, heavy on rippling lines and distorted animal faces. Among the best illustrations are those for "The Old Woman and her Maids" (84) and "The Sick Kite" (164). The praying carter (117) is on his back! The beaver, with the dogs in hot pursuit, is presented graphically (43). Lions' faces are particularly awkward. The heavy stock used for all the pages helps give the illustrations a very good presentation here. Contrast these with those done on poorer paper in the Stokes edition of the same book. Only "The Forester and the Lion" (225) lacks an image. This book is inscribed in 1898. The extra copy is distinctive only in that it has not "Bliss, Sands & Co." at the base of its spine but rather "Sands & Co." even though it has the fuller name inside the book.

1897 Aesop's Fables: The Holland Edition of 1659. No editor acknowledged. With Cuts by Carl Van Sichem reproduced from the Holland Edition of 1659. Printed in USA. Boston: The Halford Sauce Company. $20 from Cartophilian Collectibles, Cheshire, CT, May, '00.

As often happens, something I had never seen before has reappeared within six months. And as often happens, I thought I was buying a second copy of exactly the same booklet I already had. It turns out that this is the 1897 version of a booklet done in 1880. See my comments there. This booklet is the same shape (4½" x 5¾") as the earlier booklet, but this has only 32 pages instead of the 64 there. "The Battle of the Frogs and Mice" has been dropped, along with ten fables. Thus there are now twenty-eight fables, on 5 through 32. Several fables have moved: "The Boaster" (6), "The Thief and His Mother" (12), "The Fox and the Goat" (16), and "The Woman and Her Maids" (18). One of the fables dropped is "The Aethiop" (old 18). While all other page layouts change, the fable layouts change in only one respect: advertisements that had been included inside the frame around fable texts have been removed. I enjoy the moral as articulated for "The Woman and the Wolf": "The moral is apparent."

1897 Aesop's Fables Together with the Life of Aesop. Together with the Life of Aesop by Mons. De Meziriac. R. Dodsley's Essay on Fable and Dodsley's versions of the fables with a moral preceding each story. Illustrations from Heighway (NA). Chicago/NY: Rand, McNally. $3.78 from Meandaur, June, '93. Extra copy in red cover with some uncut pages and a bookmark-ribbon for $3, '79.

This was one of the first books in my collection. I have come back to look at it again after reviewing a number of Dodsley editions, including the first in 1761 and Crukshank's in 1798. See my comments on those two books. In an earlier review of this book, two curiosities struck me. I will try to work one out and add another. The first surprise to me was the announcement of the moral before the fable. Yes, this is new in the Dodsley tradition, in which the morals were given in a group at the end of the book. Of course I cannot be sure that this Rand McNally edition was the very first edition to use this format. Secondly, the life of Aesop presented here is indeed identical with that presented in Dodsley's first edition. The new curiosity is that Dodsley's fables are here joined by others, like GA (210) and BS (232), which were not in Dodsley. That gives rise to a nice new question that I cannot go after now: Where did these texts come from?

1897 Babrii Fabulae Aesopeae. Recognovit prolegomenis et indicibus instruxit Otto Crusius. Hardbound. Leipzig: Teubner. £ 13 from Michael Belson, Oxfordshire, UK, through eBay, May, '04. 

Accedunt fabularum dactylicarum et iambicarum reliquiae. Ignatii et aliorum tetrasticha iambica recensita a Carolo Friderico Mueller. I am surprised that I had not found this book earlier. It is a Teubner text in the best tradition. Its "Prolegomena" has six chapters, and there are seven indices at the end. This copy has a fine history. It was sold by Blackwell's and was in the Oxford University Readers' Library. I wonder which came before which.

1897 Fables de La Fontaine.  Illustrations de Vimar.  Hardbound.  Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils.  $5.61 from Annie Ness through eBay, March, '17.

1897 Les Fables de La Fontaine. Illustrées de 81 gravures du XVIIIe siècle tirées du "La Fontaine en Estampes," de 31 fac-simile des dessins d'un manuscrit du XIVe siècle et du portrait de La Fontaine d'après Ch. Lebrun. Hardbound. Paris: Éditées specialement pour les Magasins du bon Marché. $18.75 from Lee Blatt Books, Margate City, NJ, Jan., '98.

This is a derivative but lovely book. Its eighty-one gravures from the eighteenth century "La Fontaine en Estampes" seem to be mostly details from Oudry. That is certainly the case on 9 (DW) and 59 (SS). They suffer only from their relatively small size of 2.5" x 3.5". To them is added the series of smaller drawings from a fourteenth-century manuscript, either identical with or reproduced from those in Fables Inédites des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe Siècles et Fables de la Fontaine of 1825 by A.C.M. Robert. The paper has become brittle, and the binding is just starting to separate. The covers are part marble and part leather. AI at the back.

1897 Makarony Fables, Fables for Grown Gentlemen (and other texts). By the Author of "Crazy Tales" (John Hall Stevenson). #36 of 300 copies printed on hand-made paper. Hardbound. London: Printed for Circulation Amongst Private Subscribers Only. $22.50 from Bookworm & Silverfish, Wytheville, VA, by mail, Jan., '98. Extra copy, #31 of 300, for $37.50 from Bibliomania Book Shop, Montreal, Oct., '95.

The Franciscan Makaronies of Medenham, according to the author's opening statement to the reader, have their name derived from the Greek "makar, makaros," meaning "blessed or happy." Put it into nominative plural and you have, says the author, "Beati" or the Makaronies. The eight fables, as far as I can tell, are wordy verse enhancements of Aesop's stories. A cat plays dead, Snake and lobster cannot live in the same cramped quarters. A hawk kills a nightingale mercilessly. A cat persists in licking (her own) blood from a file. Best for me is the story in which the tortoise begs the eagle to assist him in flying (24). The eagle challenges him to jump over an ass lying in a field. The tortoise answers that this is the voice of envy speaking. Then the eagle gets angry enough to lift the tortoise up into the air--and of course drop him. Two kids together steal from a cook and give different answers to his questions. When high-quality trees argue about supremacy, brambles think that they have something important to say. These Aesopic fables are followed by "The New Fables of the Bees" in two cantos. The book also includes "A Pastoral Puke" (207). Other texts here include "Imitations of Horace." The book was formerly the property of The Oklahoma Baptist University Library. It was never taken out of the library!

1897 Neue Fibel oder Erstes Lesebuch für die deutschen katholischen Schulen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika. Bearbeitet von mehreren Priestern und Lehrern. NY: Benziger Brothers. See 1872/97.

1897 The Fables of Aesop. Compiled from the Best Accepted Sources. With Sixty Illustrations. Altemus' Young People's Library. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co. $8 by mail from Old Friends Antiques and Collectables, May, '96.

This book is an almost exact replica of that by the same title and publisher listed under 1899. Only this one says "Copyright 1897." See my extensive comment there. This book is inscribed in 1902. It has a different title-page configuration. It lacks the colored end-papers of the better 1899 version. The pagination is the same. The illustrators include Billinghurst, Weir, and Tenniel. The texts come from James and others. The advertisements at the back are also set up somewhat differently. Once again, I thought I was getting a duplicate and found instead something new!

1897 Zigzag Fables. Pictured by J.A. Shepherd. Hardbound. London: Gardner, Darton & Co. £6.50 from Edward Knight, Somerset, UK, through eBay, Dec., '11.

I had found an inferior copy of this delightful book from Abbey Antiquarian in 1998. Here is a superior copy, though still with flaws, particularly in the slip-pages between illustrations. Thus I will keep both in the collection. As I wrote then, this landscape volume has excellent chromolithography. Are these stories meant to be society-critical parodies? In CJ, the cock tells his wives that what he has found is "nothing but jewels, no good at all." The ape condemns the wolf to pay costs for bringing a false charge and tells the fox that he is lucky to escape hanging as a thief--and he takes the disputed pullet as his fee. In some, like "The Two Crabs" and "The Lion in Love," I do not see any parody; they look to me like the straight fable, but I may be missing something. New to me are two stories. One concerns a parrot getting angered over a card game and ending in court. The other shows the ostrich family rejected by both birds and beasts. "The Hermit and the Bear" makes a rousing finale. Here the hermit lives to get his revenge. I just love the colored pictures in this work! Pictorial boards for covers.

1897 Zigzag Fables. Pictured by J.A. Shepherd. Hardbound. London: Gardner, Darton & Co. £18 from Abbey Antiquarian, June, '98.

A delightful sideways (landscape rather than portrait) book with excellent chromolithography. Are these stories meant to be society-critical parodies? In CJ, the cock tells his wives that what he has found is "nothing but jewels, no good at all." The ape condemns the wolf to pay costs for bringing a false charge and tells the fox that he is lucky to escape hanging as a thief--and he takes the disputed pullet as his fee. In some, like "The Two Crabs" and "The Lion in Love," I do not see any parody; they look to me like the straight fable, but I may be missing something. New to me are two stories. One concerns a parrot getting angered over a card game and ending in court. The other shows the ostrich family rejected by both birds and beasts. "The Hermit and the Bear" makes a rousing finale. Here the hermit lives to get his revenge on the bear! I just love the colored pictures in this work! The pages are loose. Pictorial boards for covers. Some page-edge tears. The pages' paper is crumbling.

1897/1902 Stepping Stones to Literature: A First Reader. Sarah Louise Arnold and Charles B. Gilbert. NY: Silver, Burdett. $6, Sept., '91.

Some torn pages, and lots of chunky children! There are three fables, but no mention yet of "Aesop" or "fable." DM (93) has an illustration. "The Fox and the Goat" (108) has questions after it. TH (110) has illustrations and a moral: "Slow and steady wins the race." There is a nice pedagogical build-up to these fables and other stories further on in the second reader, which depends heavily on fables.

1897/1902 Stepping Stones to Literature: A Second Reader. Sarah Louise Arnold and Charles B. Gilbert. NY: Silver, Burdett. $12.50 at Avenue Victor Hugo, Boston, Nov., '97. Extra copy in the collection stamped on the back cover "Special State Edition," $2 at Cedar Creek Antiques, Cedarburg, Aug., '91. And an extra copy with the regular cover for $2 at Constant Reader, March, '88.

Aesop's fables are the backbone of this classroom reader: some twenty-eight are presented. The maid (22) carried eggs rather than milk! And "She counted her chickens before they were hatched!" The book is enhanced with a colored picture of the lark and field (18), some nice engravings, and some simpler pictures with the fables. A good example of turn-of-the century school use of Aesop. The good copy from Avenue Victor Hugo is in excellent condition.

1897/1902 Stepping Stones to Literature: A Third Reader. Sarah Louise Arnold and Charles B. Gilbert. NY: Silver, Burdett. $5 at Bookdales in Richfield, MN, March, '90. Extra copy in much poorer condition for $4 from Atlanta Vintage Books, April, '94.

This classroom reader has some five Aesopic fables and Emerson's "Fable." "The Honest Woodman" (24) has a black-and-white illustration showing the water fairy. "The Old Man and the Donkey" (165) has a nice black-and-white illustration of the father and boy together on the beast. My good copy is in excellent condition, but I think a good book detective could show that it is much more recent than the extra copy, which I am keeping in the collection.

1897/1902 Stepping Stones to Literature: A Third Reader..  Sarah Louise Arnold and Charles B. Gilbert.  Hardbound.  NY: Silver, Burdett.  $4 from Atlanta Vintage Books, April, '94.

1897? Aesop's Fables Together with the Life of Aesop. R. Dodsley. Life of Aesop by Mons. De Meziriac. Illustrations from Heighway, Billinghurst, and at least one other unacknowledged source. Chicago/NY: Rand, McNally. $4.50 at Green Apple, San Francisco, Dec., '90.

Apparently a reworking of the 1897 Rand McNally edition. See that for comments. This book adds some Billinghurst illustrations and three from an unknown source (frontispiece, 46, and 58). All the non-Heighway illustrations are included in the new list of full-page illustrations on x. The order of fables is changed after a segment of the old book. New AI on v. Also a dull new cover. Classic translations and illustrations get around!

1897? Aesop's Fables Together with the Life of Aesop. Together with the Life of Aesop by Mons. De Meziriac. R. Dodsley's Essay on Fable and Dodsley's versions of the fables with a moral preceding each story. Illustrations from Heighway (NA). Chicago/NY: Rand, McNally. $20 from Stillwater Book Center, Oct., '95.

The plates in this edition seem to be identical with those in the 1897 edition of the same title from the same publisher. There are, however, some differences. The title page is configured differently, there is no date given, and the cover is blue and gray with a federal eagle embossed in gold. See my comments there.

1897? Aesop's Fables Together with the Life of Aesop. Together with the Life of Aesop by Mons. De Meziriac. R. Dodsley's Essay on Fable and Dodsley's versions of the fables with a moral preceding each story. Illustrations from Heighway (NA). Chicago/NY: Rand, McNally. $6 from The Book End, Monterey, Feb., '97.

Just as in the adjacent item found in Stillwater, the plates in this edition seem to be identical with those in the 1897 edition of the same title from the same publisher. As in that Stillwater edition, there is no date given. Here the cover has changed again, to a simple dark red. Now the spine indicates two things of which there is no clue inside the book: "Irving" and "Library Edition." To try to avoid confusion, I list the book here separately.

1897? The Fables of La Fontaine: A Selection for Little Children. W.T. Stead. Illustrated by Brinsley Le Fanu. Paperbound. London: Books for the Bairns #45: "Review of Reviews" Office. £7.50 from David Phenna, St. Helens, UK, through eBay, March, '13.

"Books for Bairns" volumes of Aesop's Fables were published first in the 1890's by "Review of Reviews" and then again in 1926 by Ernest Benn. This pamphlet seems to belong to the former group. I have at least six books belonging to "Books for Bairns" but it is difficult to piece together their relationship to each other. I have, for example, French Fables in Rhyme as Number 272 in ""Books for Bairns" published for threepence by Stead's Publishing House in 1919. The present pamphlet has the fables presented there and adds five others: TB; "The Camel and the Floating Sticks"; "The Man and the Wooden God"; "The Oyster and the Litigants"; and "The Heron." The texts are the same (from Elizur Wright) as are the le Fanu illustrations. There are several pages here of advertisements before and after the sixty pages of fables. An early advertisement for Van Houten's cocoa quotes The Lancet from July 3, 1897. There is a terminus post quem. As I wrote there, I enjoy particularly le Fanu's series of four images for "The Lark and Her Young Ones" (38-41). There is a good series of three sketches for "The Ass and the Dog"; in fact one of them appears on the cover. The illustrations are better rendered here because they are more distinct. This pamphlet had a price of one penny.

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1898 Book 1: Fables and Rhymes: Aesop and Mother Goose. Edited by William Adams. Hardbound. NY: Lakeside Literature Series: American Book Company. $9.50 from Vase-Kraft through eBay, March, '04. 

It seems that this schoolbook has eluded me until now. Thirty-three fables are mixed in among the fifty-one stories here on 96 pages. They receive illustrations of various sorts. Several are signed "B.C." and others "L.F.P." Some pages are loose and tears in others have been repaired with scotch tape. This is a very straightforward school reader.

1898 Book 1: Fables and Rhymes: Aesop and Mother Goose. Hardbound. Chicago: Lakeside Literature Series: Western Publishing House. $5 from Shawn Rowan through eBay, May, '08.

This book is virtually identical with another in the collection published in the same year. There are two clear differences on the title-page. This copy gives the publisher as "Western Publishing House" in Chicago. There is no mention in this book of the American Book Company. That other copy has "American Book Company" as the publisher on the title-page and "Western Publishing House" on the verso as the printer. The second difference is that this copy mentions no editor. That copy listed William Adams as the editor on its title-page. As I mentioned vis-à-vis that other copy, there are thirty-three fables mixed in among the fifty-one stories here on 96 pages. They receive illustrations of various sorts. Several are signed "B.C." and others "L.F.P." This is a very straightforward school reader. Did the printing company decide to publish on their own the book whose print they had set up for another company? 

1898 Choice Literature: Book One for Primary Grades. Compiled and arranged by Sherman Williams. NY: Butler, Sheldon & Company. $2 at 5th Avenue Antiques, Milwaukee, August, '96.

Twenty-six fables take up the last sixteen pages of this beginning reader. This telling of "The Fox and the Ass" (129) forms the perfect setting for "O si tacuisses." In "The Husbandman and His Sons" (129), the husbandman said that the treasure lay within a foot of the ground's surface. "The Hawk and the Farmer" (130) is new to me. WS (132) is told in the poorer form. FC (136) handles the flattery well by making the fox's praise of the crow's voice at first middling; the crow then wanted to set him straight. The traveler's remark in MSA (138) is "You are better able to carry it than he is to carry both of you." The old man throws the ass into the river. "The Tongues" (141) is included, with Aesop and Xanthus as the main characters. The book was purchased in 1906 by the Edgerton Public Schools.

1898 Fableland (Cover: Fable Land). By William Morant. Illustrated by A. Ambrose McEvoy. Hardbound. London: T. Fisher Unwin. $50 from The Avid Reader, Chapel Hill, NC, June, '97.

There are fifty lively little original tales in this book. Though they are embellished and sometimes slightly fantastic, they are fables--and often good fables. I have read the first eight. Geese mistake a balloon for an egg laid by the moon. A pelican wins a disputed brass ring but clamps it too tightly around his own beak. Wine, cork, and bottle get into a dispute, explode, and lose anything they had together. A beaver in late fall trades his kidney beans to rats for sapphires and rubies, but then has nothing to eat. A boasting tortoise has to make good on his boast that he is fireproof by entering a volcano; he gets baked immediately. Turkey and goose both claim that humans hold them in the higher esteem and that Christmas is a feast in their respective honor; Mr. Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing offers to give them a judgment if they visit him the next day. His judgment as he eats them: "Some like turkey, others like goose. But as for myself--I like both." Finally, a young and an older horse dispute over whether they should take revenge on humans for their neglect. The latter recommends cheerfulness instead. A curious feature of this book is that the same decorative pattern of the blue cloth covers and spine is repeated on the page-edges on all sides. There are four plates by McEvoy, listed at the front after the T of C.

1898 Fables by Fal. With illustrations by Philip Burne-Jones. London: Duckworth and Co. $6 at Missouri Valley Antique Mall, June, '94.

Fourteen quirky, whimsical, dark stories, some in verse, most about unhappy love. Enjoyable, playful illustrations. The spine is damaged, so that there are breaks between 24 and 25, 40 and 41, 56 and 57. "Lazarus and Martha" (23) features a dormouse enclosed in a thick web during winter's sleep by an adoring spider. We get a garden plants' view of the coming of a terrier pup. A newt falls in love with a tadpole and, resisting young love, waits for him.... An egg that refuses to be hatched becomes corrupt and explodes. A grasshopper arranges to marry a glowworm at night so that he can be sure to find her after his random jumps, but what he sees first is her reflection in a pond. A starfish eats a winkle's mother and then pleads his love for the daughter. Wild!

1898 Fables choisies de Kryloff. Adaptées et mises en vers par J. Schnitzler. Avec une Préface de M. le vicomte E.M. de Vogüé. Nouvelle Édition revue et augmentée. Paperbound. Paris: Paul Ollendorff. €90 from Les Deux Mondes, Paris, Jan., '05. 

Thirty-six fables appear here in French verse. This is a very roomy book of 162 pages. Every title is on its own page, and many if not all fables are followed by one blank page. The spine is very fragile, and many pages are uncut. How frequently would Krylov have been translated into French before 1898?

1898 Fables de La Fontaine: Édition Illustrée.  Avec des notes et précédée de la vie de l'auteur par Auger.  250 dessins par J.-J. Grandville.  Hardbound.  Paris: Librairie Garnier Frères.  $17.45 from World of Books through Ebay, Jan., '20.

1898 Fables de La Fontaine Interprétées par Coco Lulu.  (Victor Lefèvre).  Illustrated by Paul Wellens.  Paperbound.  Brussels: H. Wellens & W. Godenne, Imprimeurs-Éditeurs.  $21.24 from Zubal Books, Cleveland, through abe, July, '15.

1898 Fables de La Fontaine Interprétées par Coco Lulu.  (Victor Lefèvre).  Illustrations by Paul Wellens.  Paperbound.  Brussels: Librairie Vanderlinden.  €5 from Evasion, Brussels, July, '19. 

1898 Fabulas de Loqmán; vertidas em portuguez e paraphrasesdas em versos hebraicos.  Joseph Bénoliel and Lazare Eliszer Wogue.  Paperbound.  Lisbon: Imprensa nacional.  €50 from Livraria sa da Costa, July, '24.

1898 Lights to Literature: Book One: A First Reader..  Avis Perdue and Florence E. LaVictoire.  Hardbound.  Chicago and NY: Rand, McNally and Company.  $16 from California, June, '13.

1898 Longmans' "Ship" Literary Readers: Book I. No author or editor acknowledged. NY: Longmans, Green, and Co. $4.50 at Harold's Book Shop, St. Paul, July, '89.

A very nice first reader in very good shape. There are five fables with good simple illustrations, especially "The Farmer and the Donkey" (7), "The Cats That Went to Law" (28), and "The Silly Frog" (34). The farmer (more usually a miller) and his son are going home, not to market. The silly frog intends no harm to his mouse friend. Also "The Fox without a Tail" (71) and "The Monkey and the Cat" (73) in script.

1898 Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae.  Recognovit et praefatus est Lucianus Mueller. Paperbound. Leipzig: Teubner. See 1881/98.

1898/1900 Lights to Literature: Book Two: A Second Reader. By Sarah E. Sprague. Chicago: Rand, McNally and Company. $5 at Bluestem Books, Lincoln, NE, May, '91. Extra copy for $3 from Bonifant, Wheaton, Oct., '91. Another extra copy with a different cover (showing two children looking at a book together) for $3 from Bookman's Corner, Chicago, March, '95.

This is a standard turn-of-the-century early reader that starts with very simple readings and works up through some fairy tales to more complex stories. FC appears with two nicely separated simple illustrations on 94-6. The crow flew a long way to find food for her young ones, and is now resting on the long trip home. Where did they get all these angelic children in full-length gowns to pose for the photos? Both copies with just a little girl on the cover are in excellent condition. The Bookman's Corner copy shows several differences: it lays out the colophon on the back of the title page differently, spreads out the T of C over two pages and so loses the aids to pronunciation that had been on the back of the previously tighter T of C, and adds a caption to the first photo.

1898/1922 A Hundred Fables of Aesop. From the English version of Sir Roger L'Estrange with pictures by Percy J. Billinghurst and an introduction by Kenneth Grahame. London: John Lane the Bodley Head. $25 from Greg Williams, Walk a Crooked Mile, Oct., '93.

A beautiful book, distinguished from the next (1924) edition by this edition's brown board covers embossed with animal figures. The illustrations seem quite sharp.

1898/1924 A Hundred Fables of Aesop. From the English version of Sir Roger L'Estrange with pictures by Percy J. Billinghurst and an introduction by Kenneth Grahame. Dust jacket. London: John Lane the Bodley Head/NY: Dodd, Mead. $25 at Powell's, Portland, Aug., '87.

A beautiful book, though the illustrations do not come out with first-rate clarity. L'Estrange's versions are often succinct.

1898/1985 Die Fabeln Gerhards von Minden in mittelniederdeutscher Sprache. Zum ersten Mal herausgegeben von Albert Leitzmann. Hardbound. Halle a.S.: Max Niemeyer/ Hildesheim, Zurich, NY: Georg Olms Verlag. €18 from Stern Verlag, June, '07.

Around 1270 Gerhard wrote one-hundred-twenty-five fables that were (among?) the first middle Low German fables. They seem to be known best as the "Wolfenbüttler Aesop" since it is in Wolfenbüttle that a paper manuscript of them from the 1400's is preserved. Those fables are here on 3-199 with comments immediately following on 203-293. One typical feature of Gerhard's verse fables is the four-line moral at the end of each. I used this edition for comparison with Steinhöwel's Romulus versions. Helpful translations of three of Gerhard's fables can be found in Becker. It is clear there, for example, that CP is for Gerhard a matter of the conquest of knowing over strength. The present book is another example of excellent German contributions around the turn of the century by making early fable texts available. Olms' reprinting extends the benefit.

1898? Aesop's Fables. With One Hundred and Forty-three Illustrations by Ernest Griset. The Text Based Chiefly upon Croxall, La Fontaine, and L'Estrange. Inscribed in 1900. NY: McLoughlin Brothers. $12 at Art and Antiques, Carson City, Aug., '92.

A very nice run of Griset and Croxall. The plates are identical with those in my Aesop's Fables (1893?) by Cassell. This book, I would guess, is the inexpensive reprint of that. Only the paper (cheaper here), the title page (mentioning a specific number of illustrations), and the cover are different. The cover illustration is a nice rendition in red, blue, and gold of McLoughlin's own "TMCM" colored picture, which can be found as frontispiece in McLoughlin's Aesop's Fables (1900?). It is a lucky day when one can pull into Carson City for a few hours and find a nice book like this one!

1898? Fables and Tales: Second and Third Reader Grades. Collected, Re-written and Edited by W.F. Rocheleau. Hardbound. Printed in USA. Chicago: A. Flanagan Co. $25 from Jim Baldwin, Big Timber, Montana, through Ebay, March, '99.

This small reader, 7" x 5¼", contains eighty pieces overall with an AI at the beginning. Pages v-vi between the AI and the first fable are missing. I had thought that this book was a duplicate of a very fragile copy, listed under "1899," which is in much poorer condition. But it turns out that many illustrations are different, even though they follow the same motifs and are placed in exactly the same places in both editions. The cover of this edition is a light board with DS pictured beneath the title. The spine is dark canvas. As far as I can tell, the text portions of the plates are exactly the same. Since the date on this copy is illegible but clearly puts the book into the 1890's and the other copy is clearly dated 1899, I resort to guessing that this copy, was previous to that. This book starts with twenty pages of simple stories, often featuring named children. Fables run from 25 through 70. In the first fable, the country mouse goes off to live with the city mouse; the version seems to be based on Jacobs'. Only a hunter is after the hart in "The Hart and the Hunter" (38, usually called something like "The Stag and Its Reflection"). The dog in DW is tied at night but free during the day (40). In BW the neighbors laugh the first time (45); the wolf ends up killing the boy. The eagle is taking the tortoise to his nest because the latter has wanted to live with the birds. On the way, the crow mentions to the eagle that tortoise meat is good (46). In CW Venus sends the mouse into the dining room (61). In MM, the maid will toss her head before Mollie Wood and the other girls; there is a funny "pail in transit" illustration on 62, in this copy as in the other, even though the illustrations are different. In "The Hare with Many Friends" (65), the hare escapes. "The Thief and His Mother" (66-67) has the bitten mother complaining to the priest, who says that her son is right. This book is an excellent example of several things about education a century ago: the role fables played, how fables were presented, and which fables were selected.

1898? Fables Choisies mises en vers par J. De La Fontaine.  Compositions de J.B. Oudry, Peintre du Roy.  Paperbound.  Paris: Maison du Petit Saint-Thomas.  $5.22 from andcarapie-0 through Ebay, Oct., '18.

1898? Picture Fables. Pamphlet. Mother's Series. NY: McLoughlin Brothers. $40 from Riverow Bookshop, Owego, NY, through Interloc, August, '98.

This toy book is unusual in its size, since it is 4¾" x 6"; most other toy books that I have seen have been larger. It is also perhaps unusual in having a two-color cover but multi-colored images on each of its eight pages inside. The fables seem to me closest to Hey's fables. That is, they are not really fables but most frequently a conjunction of a dialogue and a reflection. A boy asks a butterfly what it lives on, and the butterfly answers "blossom-scent, and sunshine fair." The poetry suffers from needing to repeat sentence subjects: "The cow she said nothing in reply." The last story comes closest to being a fable. A boy asks a goat why he has beard and horns. The child tests the goat's answer by pulling his beard, and learns to stop doing that by experiencing the goat's horns!

1898? Picture Fables. Pamphlet. NY: Mother's Series: McLoughlin Brothers. $13.83 from Laura Pusateri, Normal, IL, through eBay, Sept., '03.

This is a second copy of this little toy booklet. It is in better condition than the first. The covers' printing is heavy on red rather than on the pink and white of the earlier copy. Even the back cover has a reddish tone. Let me repeat my comments from there. This toy book is unusual in its size, since it is 4¾" x 6"; most other toy books that I have seen have been larger. It is also perhaps unusual in having a two-color cover but multi-colored images on each of its eight pages inside. The fables seem to me closest to Hey's fables. That is, they are not really fables but most frequently a conjunction of a dialogue and a reflection. A boy asks a butterfly what it lives on, and the butterfly answers "blossom-scent, and sunshine fair." The poetry suffers from needing to repeat sentence subjects: "The cow she said nothing in reply." The last story comes closest to being a fable. A boy asks a goat why he has a beard and horns. The child tests the goat's answer by pulling his beard, and learns to stop doing that by experiencing the goat's horns!

1898? Picture Fables. Pamphlet. NY: Mother's Series. McLoughlin Brothers. $5.99 from Dennis Floyd, Fort Wayne, IN, through eBay, Sept., '03.

This is a third copy of this little toy booklet. It is in poorer condition than both of the others. But it has a more diverse coloring scheme for the front cover, including several colors or tones. It thus has the look of being an older printing. However, the back cover has the same information and the same prices as the back covers of the other two copies. This copy has been sewn clumsily, and folded and even slashed down the center. It was also cheaper than both the others! Let me repeat some of my comments made a propos of the other copies. This toy book is unusual in its size, since it is 4¾" x 6"; most other toy books that I have seen have been larger. The fables seem to me closest to Hey's fables. That is, they are not really fables but most frequently a conjunction of a dialogue and a reflection. A boy asks a butterfly what it lives on, and the butterfly answers "blossom-scent, and sunshine fair." The poetry suffers from needing to repeat sentence subjects: "The cow she said nothing in reply." The last story comes closest to being a fable. A boy asks a goat why he has a beard and horns. The child tests the goat's answer by pulling his beard, and learns to stop doing that by experiencing the goat's horns!

1899 A Hundred Fables of Aesop. From the English version of Sir Roger L'Estrange with pictures by Percy J. Billinghurst and an introduction by Kenneth Grahame. London and NY: John Lane the Bodley Head. £15 from June Clinton, Dorset, May, '97.

I do not know whether I can count this beautiful book a first edition. My later copies (1922 and 1924 printings) show a printing history that begins in 1898 and has a first reprinting in 1902, but this book shows no similar printing history on the back of the title-page, and on the front has "1899." The book is inscribed in 1900. Notice that a New York office exists now for John Lane the Bodley Head; it will not be mentioned in the printing of 1922—and then will be mentioned again in the printing of 1924! Like those two later editions, this follows the format of a fable for every two pages, with the text on the left and the illustration on the right. Unlike those copies, this has excellent paper and so these are the sharpest Billinghurst illustrations I think I have seen. There is some slight water-damage to the tops of the pages. The first illustration is crooked! Among the best of the illustrations on this trip through have been these: FK (33), BF (49), "The Lark and Her Young Ones" (69), DM (91), and FG (123). The book is in very good condition, and its cover includes some lively red.

1899 Fables and Tales: Second and Third Reader Grades. Collected, Re-written and Edited by W.F. Rocheleau. Hardbound. Printed in USA. Chicago: A. Flanagan Co. $4.76 from Ruthie McCord, Medora, IL, through Ebay, April, '00.

This small reader, 7" x 5¼", contains eighty pieces overall with an AI at the beginning. Pages v-vi between the AI and the first fable are missing, as are 49-50, 65-66, and 113-14. I had thought that this very fragile book was a duplicate of a copy, listed under "1898?", which is in much better condition. But it turns out that many illustrations are different, even though they follow the same motifs and are placed in exactly the same places in both editions. The cover of this edition is dark cloth, with remnants of orange or tan ink showing a frog on the cover. As far as I can tell, the text portions of the plates are exactly the same. Since the date on this copy is legible and is clearly 1899, I resort to guessing that the other copy, also done in the 1890's, was previous to this. The book starts with twenty pages of simple stories, often featuring named children. Fables run from 25 through 70. In the first fable, the country mouse goes off to live with the city mouse; the version seems to be based on Jacobs'. Only a hunter is after the hart in "The Hart and the Hunter" (38, usually called something like "The Stag and Its Reflection"). The dog in DW is tied at night but free during the day (40). In BW the neighbors laugh the first time (45); the wolf ends up killing the boy. The eagle is taking the tortoise to his nest because the latter has wanted to live with the birds. On the way, the crow mentions to the eagle that tortoise meat is good (46). In CW Venus sends the mouse into the dining room (61). In MM, the maid will toss her head before Mollie Wood and the other girls; there is a funny "pail in transit" illustration on 62, in this copy as in the other, even though the illustrations are different. "The Thief and His Mother," completed on 67, has the bitten mother complaining to the priest, who says that her son is right. This book is an excellent example of several things about education a century ago: the role fables played, how fables were presented, and which fables were selected.

1899 Fables for the Frivolous (With Apologies to La Fontaine). By Guy Wetmore Carryl. With Illustrations by Peter Newell. Hardbound. NY/London: Harper & Brothers. $10 from Delavan Booksellers, August, '87. Extra copy of the 1899 printing for $11 from Bill Bucklin, Washington Depot, CT, through Ebay, April, '00. Extra copy of the 1904 printing for $7.50 from Jacqueline McCulloch, Cornish, Maine, through Ebay, June, '99.

A real find. Maybe the best wit goes into the titles, like "The Precipitate Cock and the Unappreciated Pearl." The wit in the rhyming texts sometimes gets lost in particulars unknown to us. "The Confiding Peasant and the Maladroit Bear" may be the funniest. The five illustrations are only satisfactory, and the frontispiece is missing in the Delavan 1899 printing. It is present in the somewhat stained but otherwise good Bucklin 1899 printing. It is also present in the water-stained extra from 1904. I will keep all three copies in the collection.

1899 Fables in Slang. George Ade. Illustrated by Clyde J. Newman. Chicago and NY: Herbert S. Stone. First edition, signed by author. $35 from Wayward Books, Sargentville, ME, at Silver Spring, Sept., '91.

What a delightful little book! Ade offers engaging and funny tales with art that shows the same mix of the simple and the cynical. For starters try "The Visitor Who Got a Lot for Three Dollars," "Sister Mae," and "Two Mandolin Players and the Willing Performer." Note the 1933 inscription: Ade hails himself as the "vocabulary-destroyer who threw all sorts of things into the `well of purest English, undefiled.'" By comparison with other printings of this book, this copy uses a different typeface for "Stone" on the spine.

1899 Fables in Slang. George Ade. Illustrated by Clyde J. Newman. Nineteenth thousand. Hardbound. Chicago/NY: Herbert S. Stone. $2.50 from Dundee Books, Omaha, April, '93.

Here is a later printing -- the nineteeth thousandth -- of a book for which I have a first edition from 1899. This copy prints "Stone" on the binding differently. As I wrote there, this is a delightful little book! Ade offers engaging and funny tales with art that shows the same mix of the simple and the cynical. For starters try " The Visitor Who Got a Lot for Three Dollars, " " Sister Mae, " and " Two Mandolin Players and the Willing Performer. " Like the first printing but unlike a later printing, this copy has a "Stone" monogram on its back cover. Inscribed in 1900. 

1899 Fantastic Fables. Ambrose Bierce. Hardbound. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons. $134.99 from Jacinto Cruz through EBay, Dec., '03.

At last I have found a--reported--first printing of this wonderful little book. The EBay advertisement makes all the right claims for the book, and the book bears them out. There are the advertisements, beginning with Anna Fuller's books, following 194. I learned here that this book, although the copyright is 1898, was published in 1899. Thus I have changed the other Bierce editions that had had a first date of 1898 to a new first date of 1899. The references that the EBay advertisement offers are McBride's Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions, pp. 74 and 282, and Bibliography of American Literature. I will also remember this book because the seller moved soon after the sale and forgot to send the book to me. After several weeks of waiting in vain, I thought I had become a victim of fraud. At last he responded with an email and then the book. See my comments on the 1970 Dover reprint.

1899 Fantastic Fables. Ambrose Bierce. ©1898 G.P. Putnam's Sons. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons. $16 through Bibliofind from The Wayward Bookman, Wales, MA, Oct., '97.

See my comments on the 1970 Dover reprint. The T of C here matches that in Dover perfectly (and is thus at odds at several points with my 1930 The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter). Copies of the first edition are going for hundreds of dollars. How fortunate that I found this early edition so cheaply!

1899 Favourite Fables for Tiny Trots.  With Drawings by Arthur S Wilkinson.  Hardbound.  London: Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co.  £29.99 from Richard Martin Gallery, Hampshire, UK, through eBay, Jan., '14.  

1899 Fifty Fables.  T(homas) W(illiam) H(odgson) Crosland.  Paperbound.  London: At the Sign of the Unicorn.  £17 from eBay, May, '08.

1899 Graded Literature Readers: First Book. Edited by Harry Pratt Judson and Ida C. Bender. NY: Maynard, Merrill, & Co. $2 at Antique Junction Mall, Pacific Junction, NE, Jan., '95.

The title page presents the first curiosity about this book. The title page's design is identical with that in the Second Book of the same series (1989), but the publisher has changed from "Maynard, Merrill, and Company" to "Charles E. Merrill Company" and Judson has gone from dean of faculties to president at Chicago. Presumably this book, though dated 1899, was printed some time later--or else Judson was demoted and Maynard came to Merrill rather than went from him! This book does not have the "Classified Contents" page found on the back of the T of C in the Second Book. There are seven fables here with illustrations. They tend to be buried in the text and so are easy to overlook: "The Fox and the Lion" (55), FG (57), "The Boys and the Frogs" (60), BC (76, DM (87), LM (99), and SW (110).

1899 Graded Literature Readers: Second Book. Edited by Harry Pratt Judson and Ida C. Bender. NY: Charles E. Merrill Co. $12.50 at Curiouser and Curiouser, Santa Fe, May, '93.

An unusual feature of this standard reader is that on the back of the T of C (5) is a "Classified Contents" page which gathers and lists the nine fables. Each has a spirited black-and-white illustration, except for TH (94) and TMCM (160), which have two apiece. The fox sets the course for the race between two milestones (94). I have never seen the fable illustrated before with the monkey holding the cat by the tummy so that she can get the chestnuts (64) out of the fire.

1899 Indiana State Series Third Reader. Revised by S.H. Clark in collaboration with H.S. Fiske. Hardbound. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana School Book Co. $2 in Lincoln, NE, Jan., '13.

Indiana changed its third reader significantly, at least with regard to fables, between 1894 and 1899. Our copy of the 1894 Third Reader includes GGE; "The Cats and the Monkey"; FC; FS; WL; DM; DS; TH; FG; DLS; WSC; and "The Boy That Stole Apples." There is, as here, a T of C at the beginning. This edition has only FC with two lovely silhouettes (28-29) and "The Mountain and the Squirrel" by Ralph Waldo Emerson with a black-and-white reproduction of a painting by Edwin Landseer (48-49). The big surprise here is that this version, inscribed in 1901, is so thoroughly different from that version of five years earlier. Offhand, I can find only one piece that is identical: "One, Two, Three" (23 here, 16 there). Format and authors have changed thoroughly. The surprise deepens when one reads on the verso of the title-page here of copyrights from 1883, 1889, and 1894. Are those perhaps only for specific particular materials within this volume? Is the word "revised" meant to refer to this book? If so, it is surprising that I can find no reference to the earlier volume. Wonders never cease! 

1899 Les Fables de Jean-Pierre-Claris de Florian. Illustrées par A(uguste) Vimar. Avant-Propos de M. André Theuriet. Hardbound. Paris: Henri Laurens. $18 from Green Village, Brooklyn, NY, through Ebay, April, '00. Extra copy with slightly brittle pages for $100 from Jim Laurie, Minneapolis, Dec., '98.

Bodemann 381.1. This is a beautiful book. It is in the same series as Henry Morin's Les Fables de la Fontaine. On the cover is an animal excursion led by the monkey with a magic lantern on his back. The frontispiece is an animal parade led by the fox barrister. All 110 fables are represented. Bodemann counts 75 illustrations in the text. Of these I find three (Bodemann counts only two) that are full-page colored illustrations: "Le Singe qui montre la Lanterne magique" (34), "L'habit d'Arlequin" (84), and "Le Léopard et l'Ecureuil" (118). We both count five further colored illustrations: "La Carpe et les Carpillons" (10); "Le Danseur de corde et le Balancier" (42); "Le Paon, les deux Oisons et le Plongeon" (68); "Le Lapin et la Sarcelle" (95); and "Le Procès des deux Renards" (111). The uncolored drawings are also often delightful. Particularly spirited are these illustrations: "Le Boeuf, le Cheval et l'Ane" (5); "L'âne et la Flûte" (115); and "Le Crocodile et l'Esturgeon" (124). There is a full T of C at the end. The first copy was in the Alliance Française Library in Poughkeepsie. Because both copies have some flaws, especially to their covers, I will keep both in the collection.

1899 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome I: Phèdre et ses anciens imitateurs. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No date. See 1893/99.

1899 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome III: Avianus et ses anciens imitateurs. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No date. See 1893/99.

1899 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome IV: Eudes de Cheriton et ses dérivés. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No date. See 1893/99.

1899 Les fabulistes Latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du moyen âge. Léopold Hervieux. Tome V: Jean de Capoue et ses dérivés. Burt Franklin Research and Source Works Series #99. NY: Burt Franklin. No date. See 1893/99.

1899 Rhymes and Fables: First Reader Grade. Compiled and Adapted by John H. Haaren. Hardbound. NY: Golden Rod Books: Newson & Company. $8 from Used Book Store, Bismarck, June, '97.

©1899 by University Publishing Co. Many fables are included here. Since they are all prose and the "rhymes" are all in verse, the fables are pretty easy to pick out. This little book does an unusually good job with FWT by using this as the comment of the bystander fox: "I do not think that you would propose to have us part with our tails, if you had the slightest chance of getting back your own" (24). New to me is "The Man and the Puppies" (44), which I find suggesting a very good point about advice from those not responsible. Several fables are decorated with small illustrations: FG (18) "The Farmer and the Snake" (27), LM (49), "The Nurse and the Wolf" (55), and TB (57). This book is well worn.

1899 The Baldwin Primer. By May Kirk. Illustrations of various sorts from various sources. Inscribed in 1908. NY: American Book Company. $2.50 from Antiquarium, April, '91.

A nice primer giving an excellent view of what was important beginning learning in the America of the turn of the century. Two fables appear: FS (88) and OF (98), the latter told in a soft version where the mother is only warned that she might explode. The book is in good condition for its age. Signed in Anthon, Iowa.

1899 The Fables of Aesop. Compiled from the Best Accepted Sources. With Sixty Illustrations. Altemus' Young People's Library. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co. $12 from Barbara and Bill Yoffee, March, '94. Later printing for $2.52 at Meandaur, June, '93.

"Compiled" is right! The illustrators in this small, squarish book include Billinghurst, Weir, and Tenniel. The texts come from James and others. The fascinating advertisements for books at the back allow, I believe, for relative dating of these two printings and of the adjacent listing of an Altemus book. The Yoffee copy here advertises books in this series for $.40 apiece. Its binding has orange coloring, and its frontispiece is Billinghurst's "The Cat and the Fox." The Meandaur copy has a colored frontispiece of LM and offers books in this series for $.50 apiece. It is inscribed 1901; prices seem to have gone up fast between 1899 and 1901! Both of these copies use some red ink on their title pages. One question remains: Why would the title page claim sixty illustrations and the advertisements sixty-two?

1899 The Fables of Aesop. Compiled from the Best Accepted Sources. With Sixty Illustrations. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co. $2 at Renaissance, May, '89.

This book seems a cheaper version of the "Altemus' Young People's Library" edition; see the two copies of this edition listed nearby. This book shares the same spine format with the Yoffee copy there, but has a dark cover background. It seems to come from some time later than those editions since the advertisements at the back for "Altemus' New Illustrated Young People's Library" offer books for $.75 apiece. (Is this perhaps the book advertised there as part of that library? In any case, note the italicized changes in the name of the library.) The title page here is simple and done entirely in black. The facing frontispiece is Billinghurst's black-and-white "The Cat and the Fox," as in the Yoffee copy of the "Altemus' Young People's Library" edition.

1899 The Isopo Laurenziano. Edited with Notes and an Introduction Treating of the Interrelation of Italian Fable Collections by Murray Peabody Brush. Presented to the Board of University Studies of the John (sic) Hopkins University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Columbus, Ohio: The Lawrence Press Co. $7.50 from the Old New York Book Shop, Atlanta, Dec., '94.

A good text, well placed and edited, of a Florence manuscript which includes forty-six fables and is an Italian derivative of Marie de France. (Other Italian fable manuscripts were based principally on Walter of England, as was the work of Francesco del Tuppo, published in 1485.) Good tables, e.g. of the Walter and the Marie manuscript-family correspondences. The "Cuckoo" fable (here II 21) marks off Marie de France and her Italian derivatives and seems to exist only in this group. There are good notes on individual fables starting on 179 and then a vita of Brush after 186. Originally (?) sold at G.E. Stechert & Co. (Alfred Hafner) in NY. The first few pages of this old book have just come loose. A pity! It almost made it intact to its hundredth birthday!

1899 The Rational Method in Reading. Third Reader. Edward G. Ward. NY: Silver, Burdett and Co. $.75 at Pageant, NY, May, '91.

Nine fables (13, 14, 21, 23, 30, 36, 37, 53, and 65), some with simple illustrations. The best illustrations are for TH (36) and "The Donkey and the Salt" (54-5). The stork (65) finishes off the frogs and seeks "some other company of frogs that might want a king." There are some pencil markings. AI at the back acknowledges Aesop. "Rational reading" includes letters crossed out and sounds indicated. Page 44 features the same picture as 85 of Wheeler's Second Reader (1903).

1899 The Second Reader. The Student's Series. Kansas Edition. By Richard Edwards. Revised by Florence Holbrook. No illustrator acknowledged. Chicago: Scott, Foresman. $4 at Finders Keepers in Omaha, Jan., '89.

A good example of late-nineteenth-century unacknowledged use of Aesop in a textbook for early grades. Five fables, none with illustrations.

1899 The Universal Anthology. Volume I (of many? Volume II is present but contains no fables). Edited by Richard Garnett, Leon Vallée, and Alois Brandl. Westminster Edition. #757 of 1000. London: Clarke Company/NY: Merrill and Baker/Paris: Emile Terquem/Berlin: Bibliothek Verlag. $20 at Second Story, Bethesda, Sept., '91.

A curious anthology beginning with creation stories and moving through all sorts of ancient literature. Six plates per volume, none for fables. There are six "Hindoo Apologues" (227) well told but too long. Eight of Pilpay's fables (254) are nested here. Many of Aesop's fables are retold by Phaedrus (273-84), including 2W, "a dubious piece of morality" (280).

1899 The Universal Anthology. Librarians' Edition. Volume 1. Edited by Richard Garnett, Leon Vallée, and Alois Brandl. London: The Anthological Society of London. $11.50 at All About Books, Denver, March, '94.

Compare this with the larger edition, of which I have two volumes done in 1899. By contrast, this edition has smaller pages and margins but uses the same size plates; it also lacks a limited-edition number and illustrations except the picture of Garnett facing the title-page. See my comments there.

1899 Tiny Toddlers. Edited by Uncle Herbert. Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry and Co. $10 from Eccentric Eclectic Books and Collectibles at Santa Fe Flea Market, May, '93.

Here is a wonderful find. It is one of those turn-of-the-century readers with simple stories of all sorts, dark pictures, and bright-eyed children on the cover. I noticed as I was about to put the book back that there is one illustration of a lion and a fox, though the story is not that of the fable "The Lion and the Fox." I looked through the volume and realized that at least nine standard fable illustrations by the Dalziel Brothers are used without fables for their stories! These fables involve: the horse, rider, and stag; the hanging cat and mice (not by the Dalziels); the goat and lamb; the stork and frogs (note the log); the lion and horse; the wolves, dogs, and sheep; the dogs and beaver (there is no mention of testicles here!); the horse and dead donkey; the archer and bird (not by the Dalziels; is it Aesopic?); the crane and peacock; the hawk and chick; and the lion and fox. Enjoy reading the stories the edition creates to substitute for fables, e.g., to avoid mention of the beaver's biting off of his testes!

1899/1901 Fables in Slang. George Ade. Clyde J. Newman. Sixty-ninth thousand. Hardbound. Chicago/NY: Herbert S. Stone. $10 from Book Cellar, Bethesda, Sept., '93 .

Here is a yet later printing -- the sixty-ninth thousandth -- of a book for which I have both a first edition and a nineteenth thousandth from 1899. This copy omits the "Stone" monogram on its back cover. As I wrote of the earlier printings, this is a delightful little book! Ade offers engaging and funny tales with art that shows the same mix of the simple and the cynical. For starters try "The Visitor Who Got a Lot for Three Dollars," "Sister Mae," and "Two Mandolin Players and the Willing Performer." The 1901 date comes from the title-page, which adds an "I" after "C C C C." 

1899/1902 Child Life in Tale and Fable: A Second Reader. By Etta Austin Blaisdell and Mary Frances Blaisdell. Illustrations by Sears Gallagher. Hardbound. NY: MacMillan. $13.50 from Kay Schmiesing, Waterloo, Iowa, through Ebay, Oct., '00.

Here is my earliest printing of a book I have in two later printings. The later listings are under 1899/1912 and 1899/1919. See my comments there. The cover of this copy has either been bleached or started out a lighter green than the others.

1899/1910? Fables in Slang. George Ade. Illustrated by Clyde J. Newman. NY: Grosset & Dunlap. $3 from Heartwood, Charlottesville, March, '92.

Now here is a real curiosity. The book is bound upside down. It looks at first like a reprint with green cover of the original 1899 edition by Herbert Stone. It drops the copyright date and the T of C. At the end of Fables in Slang, it presents without warning five selected fables from More Fables in Slang. Found for me by a solicitous fellow in a wonderful bookstore.

1899/1912 Child Life in Tale and Fable: A Second Reader. By Etta Austin Blaisdell and Mary Frances Blaisdell. Illustrations by Sears Gallagher. Seventeenth printing. NY: The MacMillan Company. $10 from Cliff's Books, Pasadena, Feb., '97.

This is a well-used old book with many torn pages, but still intact. There are several colored full-page inserts, but none for fables. Five fables appear, all copiously and engagingly illustrated in black-and-white. In BW (16), there are two or three false calls and one dead sheep at the end. TMCM (74) features an attack by the dog in the dining room and by the cat in the kitchen. The young man in "The Boy and the Nuts" (86) comments sagely at the end "I might have thought of that myself." In FL (95), the young larks cannot fly at the beginning of the three-step process that goes from friends to cousins to father and son, but they can at the end. GGE (100) has a particularly good illustration; this goose produces a golden egg every day.

1899/1919 Child Life in Tale and Fable: A Second Reader. By Etta Austin Blaisdell and Mary Frances Blaisdell. Illustrations by Sears Gallagher. Hardbound. NY: MacMillan. $9.95 from University Used & Rare Books, Seattle, July, '00.

Here is a later printing--and better copy--of a book I have already listed under 1899/1912. Let me repeat my comments from there. There are several colored full-page inserts, but none for fables. Five fables appear, all copiously and engagingly illustrated in black-and-white. In BW (16), there are two or three false calls and one dead sheep at the end. TMCM (74) features an attack by the dog in the dining room and by the cat in the kitchen. The young man in "The Boy and the Nuts" (86) comments sagely at the end "I might have thought of that myself." In FL (95), the young larks cannot fly at the beginning of the three-step process that goes from friends to cousins to father and son, but they can at the end. GGE (100) has a particularly good illustration; this goose produces a golden egg every day.

1899/1960 Fables in Slang and More Fables in Slang. George Ade. Illustrated by Clyde J. Newman. E.F. Bleiler. Paperbound. NY: Dover. $3 from Allen's, Baltimore, Nov., '91.

Here is an early version of Dover's republication of Ade's first two fable books (actually published in 1899 and 1900). It is highlighted by Bleiler's excellent introduction. All the fables but one are reprinted, and apparently almost all the illustrations appear again here. I have a copy of Dover's later version of this book for $1.50 with an orange cover and drum patterns for the simple information on the back of this version. Here the covers are white and the price is $1. The format of the bibliographical information on the back of the title-page is different, and it includes acknowledgement of Geoffrey K. Mawbrey as its designer. This version also has a printed pre-title-page as against the blank pre-title-page there. 

1899/1970 Fantastic Fables. Ambrose Bierce. Original: NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Reprint: NY: Dover. Gift received in a humorous exchange with Margaret Carlson Lytton.

Two sections bear directly on Aesop:  "Aesopus Emendatus" and "Old Saws with New Teeth"  (see T of C on vii-viii for listings).  They are cynical and sardonic.  Several should interest any adult audience.  No illustrations.  The best in the "Aesopus Emendatus" collection:  TH, FG, "The Penitent Thief," "The Cat and the Youth," LM, and "The Man and the Goose."  I have five different printings of this book and will include them all under this one listing.  They are distinguished by price and a few elements of format.  The first has "$1.75" in the upper right corner of the front cover.  The back cover lacks price and ISBN number.  It contains a number of my own markings.  The second has a price of $2.50 marked, along with its ISBN number, on the bottom of the back cover.  The third seems to have been distributed -- and perhaps even printed? -- for the UK only.  At least a stamped marker proclaims that in the upper right of the front cover.  The back cover is like that of the first printing mentioned above.  It came from Midway Books in St. Paul for $5.  The fourth printing has a price of $3.50 marked, along with its ISBN number, on the bottom of the back cover.  The fifth rearranges the bottom of the back cover to accommodate a bar code to the right of its price of $3.95.  This copy came from ElephantBooks in Gilroy, CA, for $2.96 in October, '02.

1899/1972 Fables in Slang. George Ade. Designed by Bradbury Thompson. Foreword by Jean A. Bradnick. Ornamental designs taken from Louis Henry Sullivan. Boxed. Limited edition published by Westvaco Corporation (no place given). Gift of Michaela Hug, July, '94. Extra copies for $8 from Herbert Furse of Glenview, Spring, '88, and for $8.75 from Allen's, Baltimore, May, '92.

This edition adds a Hoosier-heavy foreword and ornamental designs to Ade's text. I do not know the Westvaco Corporation; might it have made this edition for use as a Christmas gift? The cover is nicely embossed. The ornamental designs are offbeat for Ade, but then he was offbeat himself.

1899+1900/60 Fables in Slang and More Fables in Slang. George Ade. Illustrated by Clyde J. Newman. Introduction by E.F. Bleiler. NY: Dover Publications. $3 for the hardbound edition at Second Story Books in DC, June, '89. $.50 earlier for the paperback. Extra paperback for $3 from Allen's, Baltimore, Nov., '91.

This republication of Ade's first two fable books is highlighted by Bleiler's excellent introduction. All the fables but one are reprinted, and apparently almost all the illustrations appear again here.

1899? Aesop's Fables: New Series: Books for the Bairns.-XXVI. Edited by W.T. Stead. With 152 Sketches by Brinsley le Fanu. Pamphlet. Printed in England. London: Books for the Bairns.-XXVI: "Review of Reviews" Office. £8 from Plurabelle Books, Cambridge, UK, through the Advanced Book Exchange, Oct., '00.

The front cover is detached, and the back cover is lacking. There are eighty-six fables on 56 pages (65-120), preceded by a T of C and followed by numerous advertisements. According to the cover, the First Series of Aesop's Fables appeared as No. 1 of "Books for the Bairns." I had heard of the series often enough to be very curious, and so I snapped up three of their volumes as soon as I saw them available. Brinsley le Fanu does a good job of conveying enough information in his "sketches," two to four per single page. A good example of his use of them to provide three distinct moments in a story might be "The Negro; or, You may Kill the Man, but You Cannot Change His Skin" (105). An excellent point of presentation lies in the fables' frequent "sub-titles" beginning with "or." Thus the first fable is titled "The Pedlar's Ass; or, The Dodger Outdodged." These second titles offer good perspective on the fables. Other good sub-titles include "The Lion's Kingdom; or, Only in Peace Have the Weak Any Chance" (78); "The Fawn and Its Mother; or, The Instinct of Self-Preservation" (84); "The Old Lion; or, The Coward's Kick" (110); and "The Fox and the Hedgehog; or, There Is No Trouble So Bad But There May Be a Worse" (119). The typesetter worked very hard to make sure that no fable here ran over onto another page. This kind of booklet is really "ephemera," and I am delighted to have found a copy at all.

1899? The Book of Fables: Containing Aesop's Fables. Complete, with text based upon Croxall, La Fontaine and L'Estrange. With copious additions from other modern authors. Profusely illustrated by Ernest Griset. NY: Arlington Editions: Hurst and Co. Gift from Donna Stutzman of Lancaster, NY, Spring, '85. Second copy with blue cover for $12.60 from Meandaur, June, '93.

After 140 pages of Aesop, there are "Later Fables" in the last 100 pages of the book. Compare the two copies to see how much more clearly Griset's work emerges in the blue-covered volume. Good AI. The Stutzman copy was sold in Buffalo and owned in Corfu, NY.

1899? The English Spelling-Book. William Mavor. Revised and brought up to date by E.H. Montauban. London: George Routledge and Sons. $15 at Bird-in-the-Cage Antiques, Alexandria, March, '92.

The book is datable between the last historical event (Indian Frontier War in 1897) and the death of Victoria (still alive here) in 1901. Compare this edition to the earlier K. Greenaway 1885 edition of Mavors. The most expansive spelling-book I have seen. Pages 92-97 present six fables All six have illustrations, apparently principally J. Greenaway's engravings after Weir. Only DS repeats from 1885, and the text is different. The others are FG, BW, DM, "The Kid and the Wolf," and WL. The book moves on from here to a wealth of information from currency exchange rates to Latin phrases used in English! The junk shop in which I bought this book is an adventure in itself.

1899? Uncle Charlie's Favourite Fables. With 100 Illustrations by Harrison Weir and other Eminent Artists. Hardbound. London: Uncle Charlie Series of Books for the Nursery: Griffith, Farran, Browne and Co. £30.80 from Andmeister Books, London, through abe, March, '11.

My list of books titled by "Uncle" is growing: Uncle Frank, Uncle Didrick, Uncle Ben Jay, and of course Uncle Remus. Now here is Uncle Charlie. This is some of the clearest work I have by Weir: his main contribution to the book seems to lie in the quadrangular illustrations that take about two-thirds of a given page. Weir appears in Bodemann only for the 1865 Townsend edition and a French LaFontaine published around 1890 by Ardant in Limoges. Several Weir engravings here seem to add "1869" to his signature, like "The Vine and the Goat" and FG. The full-page illustrations, like "The Stag in the Ox-Stall" and "The Charger and the Ass," seem to be from a different hand and to be generic animal pictures not related to the fable's scene. They are in any case less impressive. It continues to amaze me that publishers added pictures of animals to a book like this almost without reference to the specific story at hand. Thus LM features a strong Weir illustration but also a picture of four mice eating around a bird's nest. The following story of "The Ass and the Little Dog" has a good line drawing of the ass rising up in front of its master, but also a generic picture of a dog looking out of his doghouse. This book would provide a field-day for investigators of late-nineteenth century Aesopic and other illustrations. Other names on illustrations include Greenaway, Swain, Zwecker, Pearson, Trood, and Berkeley. The paper-covered spine is weakening. Pictorial boards. The front cover shows a ram, a lamb, and a bird, the back cover a pug and a turtle. In a curious contradiction, the verso of the last page says "Printed by Morrison and Gibb Limited, Edinburgh; the cover seems, around a slight tear, to proclaim "Imp. H. Grünblum Weimar." The book is inscribed in 1900.

1899?/1902? Aesop's Fables: New Series: Books for the Bairns.-XXVI. Edited by W.T. Stead. With 152 Sketches by Brinsley le Fanu. Hardbound. London: "Review of Reviews" Office. $28 from Dog Collector Books, Kenilworth, NJ, Sept., '06.

This is a hard-cover version in better condition than the pamphlet version I have listed under the same title, publisher, author. That listing is under "1899?". Besides the hard covers, this copy has different advertisements on the verso of the inside cover and it adds a page of advertisements between this cover and the title-page. The front of this added page gives a full listing of the eighty "Books for the Bairns." The other copy had listed thirty-five books in the series on Page ii of the advertisements at the back. This book has six pages of different advertisements at the back, including the back-inside-cover's two pages. I will repeat some of my comments from that other copy. There are eighty-six fables on 56 pages (65-120), preceded by a T of C. According to the cover, the First Series of Aesop's Fables appeared as No. 1 of "Books for the Bairns." I had heard of the series often enough to be very curious, and so I snapped up three of their volumes as soon as I saw them available. Brinsley le Fanu does a good job of conveying enough information in his "sketches," two to four per single page. A good example of his use of them to provide three distinct moments in a story might be "The Negro; or, You may Kill the Man, but You Cannot Change His Skin" (105). An excellent point of presentation lies in the fables' frequent "sub-titles" beginning with "or." Thus the first fable is titled "The Pedlar's Ass; or, The Dodger Outdodged." These second titles offer good perspective on the fables. Other good sub-titles include "The Lion's Kingdom; or, Only in Peace Have the Weak Any Chance" (78); "The Fawn and Its Mother; or, The Instinct of Self-Preservation" (84); "The Old Lion; or, The Coward's Kick" (110); and "The Fox and the Hedgehog; or, There Is No Trouble So Bad But There May Be a Worse" (119). The typesetter worked very hard to make sure that no fable here ran over onto another page. This kind of booklet is really "ephemera," and I am delighted to have found another copy. The bookseller gives 1902 as the date for this publication. I can find no indication of date whatsoever.

1899?/1979 Aesop's Fables. Editor is "J.B.R." who uses LaFontaine, Croxall, and l'Estrange. Illustrator, not acknowledged, is Griset. Woodbury, NY: Bobley: Children's Classics Library. $3 at Second Chance, April, '91. Extra copy for $2.50 at Antiquarium, Jan., '89. And another for $4 from Greg Williams, March, '92.

A good example of a cheap knockoff reprint of an earlier work. See the editions dated 1899?, 1900, 1902, 1925, 1930, and 1930?. The text is identical with the non-expanded "JBR" versions, but the morals are omitted. Griset's full-page illustrations come out very dark; many smaller ones are satisfactory. Note the typewritten list of illustrations on xi and the reprinted AI at the back.

 

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