Creighton University

This is the Disney version of TH, to be sure, minus the names of the two principals.  The hare appears like a champion athlete in a robe and cincture.  The tortoise's first picture shows his neck extended.  Snails accompany the tortoise along the route.  In this French book, the starter's box has a title "Starter."  The hare runs circles around the tortoise but then sleeps at the foot of a tree.  The racing features a roll down a hill by the tortoise and showing off biy  the hare for the rabbit girls at their "pensionnat."  The various athletic impossibilities accomplished by the hare for the girls are illustrated.  The hare is afterward as ashamed as a fox captured by a chicken.  At the end, the book quotes La Fontaine's moral: "rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir a point" even though that is not really the issue in this race!  Stiff cardbord covers and 32 thick paper pages.  6½" x 7¾".

Here is, apparently, an earlier edition of a book that this collection has in a smaller edition in 1967.  That is, this book has four fables, not three.  The addition is the fable identified on the front cover: FC.  A curious fact is that the listing on the title-page follows this order:  TT, MM, FC, and "Le Renard et le Bouc."  The actual order of fables in the book is FC, MM, TT, and "Le Renard et le Bouc."  The La Fontaine text is unchanged.  As with all of Simon's work, the illustrations are simple and lively.  I can never be sure that I have found all the books included in this series!  Perhaps the cutest illustration is that of the turtle standing on two legs with suitcase and valise in her hands and a scarf around her head.  The final illustration of the abandoned goat in the well is also excellent.

Five years ago I found a copy of this little book listed under 1956/72.  Now here is a copy that recognizes a first edition in 1953 but was printed in 1966.  This copy adds a blank verso to the title-page, and all pages thenceforth are one number higher.  It was printed in Poland, not France.  I will include comments which I made then.  Cataloguing this little book has one reaching for a number of other books in the collection.  There were apparently four La Fontaine books in this same format in the "Les Albums Roses" collection.  We now have three, including TT (1967) and WL (both 1953 and 1956).  Each presents several La Fontaine fables.  Romain Simon seems to have been the artist for all four.  We still need to find GA.  The present book uses the same interior art work as the 1976 book by Hachette in its "Gentil Coquelicot" series, titled "Le Lièvre et la Tortue."  That larger book includes some playful questions after the stories and an unrelated song on its back cover.  In this "Album Roses" copy, three fables are announced on the title-page, though they are not presented in that order.  At his nap, the rabbit of TH has a pipe and newspaper.  He even juggles fruit along the way.  The turtle, with an umbrella, stands at the end where there is a bag of "bonbons fins."  In TMCM, the country rat is delivered in a handle-litter carried by two other rats.  There is a fine last picture showing the smiling country rat at home in wooden shoes drinking wine and eating grains and vegetables with great pleasure!  "The Cat, the Weasel, and the Little Rabbit" features lively characters.

Five fables are announced on the title-page of this 6.5"x 8" kids' book:  OF; FS; GA; LM; and "The Heron."  They occur in this order: GA; FS; OF; "The Heron"; and LM.  The La Fontaine text is unchanged.  I have seen Simon's GA illustrations before.  I find the facial expressions of the ant wonderfully expressive (6-7).  Similarly, the facial expressions of the fox in FS are excellent, from his sniffing the pot he has uncovered in the stork's kitchen to his looking down the long neck of the steaming serving vessel to leaving chagrined.  The ox is shocked by the frog's explosion.  The back cover illustrates WC, a fable not presented in this booklet.

Cataloguing this little book has one reaching for a number of other books in the collection.  There were apparently four La Fontaine books in this same format in the "Les Albums Roses" collection.  We now have three, including TT (1967) and WL (both 1953 and 1956).  Each presents several La Fontaine fables.  Romain Simon seems to have been the artist for all four.  We still need to find GA.  The present book uses the same interior art work as the 1976 book by Hachette in its "Gentil Coquelicot" series, titled "Le Lièvre et la Tortue."  That larger book includes some playful questions after the stories and an unrelated song on its back cover.  In this "Album Roses" copy, three fables are announced on the title-page, though they are not presented in that order.  At his nap, the rabbit of TH has a pipe and newspaper.  He even juggles fruit along the way.  The turtle, with an umbrella, stands at the end where there is a bag of "bonbons fins."  In TMCM, the country rat is delivered in a handle-litter carried by two other rats.  There is a fine last picture showing the smiling country rat at home in wooden shoes drinking wine and eating grains and vegetables with great pleasure!  "The Cat, the Weasel, and the Little Rabbit" features lively characters.  I catalogued this book five years ago, but only now notice that it was printed in 1972.

Two fables are announced on the title-page of this kids' book:  WL and MSA.  The La Fontaine text is unchanged.  As with all of Simon's work, the illustrations are simple and lively.  The book thus takes up two of the four fables presented in the 1953/56 edition in our collection.  The final picture of the wolf sleeping soundly at the base of a tree with a distended belly is appropriate to the text, I believe.  Images particularly well done in MSA include the two on 14 and 15, as the anger of onlookers is reflected in the anger of the riding miller.  The final image of all three smiling – miller, ass, and son – is also the perfect finish for La Fontaine's version of this traditional story.  I am coming close to having the full set of "Les Albums Roses."  This copy was printed in 1972 but copyrighted in 1967.