Bugs

Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Co, 1931. First and only edition of this surprisingly beautiful volume of children’s verse by Eleanor Dawes Walter, with illustrations by Helen Munsell Roberts, apparently the only publication by either woman. The bugs of the title include the butterfly, the cricket, the caterpillar, the ladybug, the firefly, the ants, the bee, the grasshopper, and the dragonfly. Each is the subject of a vibrant two-page spread, with saturated color and a striking use of negative space, featuring a short descriptive poem. On the firefly: “They use this glow which has no heat, / To signal each other as they meet. / It warns night-birds that they don’t taste good / They’re better as light than they are as food.” In 2016, the Seattle publisher Laughing Elephant adapted Bugs as a board book entitled Our Friends the Bugs, with simplified illustrations, but the original has never been reissued. A very nearly fine copy of a fragile book. Side-stapled volume, measuring 13 x 9.5 inches: [18]. Color pictorial wrappers, color illustrations on every page. Lightest edgewear. (Inventory #: 1003984)