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Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, First Edition in Original Dust Jacket, 1952

Creator: E.B. White
Offered by: The Great Republic

Description
White, Elwyn Brooks. Charlotte’s Web. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952. First edition, first printing. Illustrated by Garth Williams. In the publisher's original boards and illustrated dust jacket.

Presented is a first edition of the beloved children’s book Charlotte’s Web by Elwyn Brooks White and illustrated by Garth Williams. The book was published in New York by Harper & Brothers in 1952. This is a first edition, first printing with the code “I-B” on the copyright page. The book is presented in the publisher’s original boards and dust jacket.

The most celebrated of White’s three children’s books, Charlotte’s Web is rightly regarded as a modern classic" (Connolly, 322-23). The novel tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. This is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that continues to be enjoyed by generations.

White finished the first draft of Charlotte’s Web in 1951 and then let it sit for a year. He said in a letter to his patient editor: "I've recently finished another children's book, but have put it away to ripen (let the body heat out of it). It doesn't satisfy me the way it is and I think eventually I shall rewrite it pretty much." When Charlotte's Web finally came out in October 1952, the reviews were admiring and laudatory. Since its publication, the book has sales of more than 45 million copies and has been translated into 23 languages.

E. B. White (1899-1985) earned his B.A. at Cornell University. He was on staff at the New Yorker, wrote for Harper’s Magazine, and published works of poetry and prose before trying his hand at writing for children. White’s elegance, simplicity, and dry wit balance both his poetry and prose. “His literary style was as pure as any in our language. It was singular, colloquial, clear, unforced, thoroughly American and utterly beautiful” (William Shawn).

His poetry includes The Fox of Peapack, and Other Poems(1938), The Second Tree from the Corner (1954), and Poems and Sketches of E.B. White (1981). He penned several books for children, publishing Stuart Little in 1945, Charlotte’s Web in 1952, and The Trumpet of the Swan in 1970. His prose for adult readers includes One Man’s Meat(1944), Here Is New York(1949), Letters of E.B. White(1976), and Essays of E.B. White (1977). White was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973. His honors include the National Medal for Literature, a special Pulitzer award, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal.

Garth Williams (1912- 1996) was the renowned illustrator of almost one hundred books for children, including the beloved Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White, Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban, and the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. He was born in 1912 in New York City, but raised in England. He founded an art school near London and served with the British Red Cross Civilian Defense during World War II. Williams worked as a portrait sculptor, art director, and magazine artist before working on his first book Stuart Little, thus beginning a long and lustrous career illustrating and developing characters for some of the best known children's books.

CONDITION:

Very good condition. Octavo. First edition, first printing. In original beige cloth boards, stamped in blue and black on front board and spine. Cloth of front board with some very light spots. In publisher's price-clipped dust jacket. Jacket with some light sunning and foxing. The head and tail of the jacket spine with some minor flaking and some light rubbing to joints. A eighth-inch closed tear to bottom of front panel. In original blue pictorial endpapers. Stated “FIRST EDITION” on the copyright page with the code “I-B.” Inside pages clean and unmarked. Illustrated throughout. Previous owner Thomas Lovejoy's bookplate on half-title. Lovejoy was an American ecologist and former President of the Amazon Biodiversity Center. He was also the director of the conservation program at World Wildlife Fund-U.S.

Book Dimensions: 8 1/4" H x 5 3/4" W x 3/4" D.

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.