L. W. Currey, Inc.

Grimm, Jakob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm. GERMAN POPULAR STORIES, TRANSLATED FROM THE KINDER AND HAUS MARCHEN, Collected by M. M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition [with] GERMAN POPULAR STORIES, TRANSLATED FROM THE KINDER AND HAUS MARCHEN, Collected by M. M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition. Vol. II. London: Published by C. Baldwyn, Newgate Street [and] London: James Robins & Co. and Joseph Robins Jun.r & Co. Dublin, 1824-1826. 12mo, two volumes: pp. [i-iii] iv-xii [1] 2-240; [i-iii] [1] 2-256 [257] [258: printer's imprint], inserted engraved title leaves and nineteen plates, all with etchings by George Cruikshank, full black morocco, all panels tooled in gold and blind, inner dentelles, a.e.g., marbled endpapers. Third issue of volume I and first edition, first printing of volume II of the earliest printing in English of GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. Third issue of volume I (sometimes called the "second edition") with subtitle "The Travelling Musicians" ("or the Waits of Bremen") present on page 9, engraved title without an umlaut in the word "Marchen," and engraved title leaf dated 1824. This volume (complete in itself) was followed by a second volume published in 1826. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German philologists, folklorists and writers, remain best-known for the various versions of DIE KINDER-UND HAÜSMARCHEN (1812-1815), first published in English-language translation by Edgar Taylor as GERMAN POPULAR STORIES (1823-1826) with illustrations by George Cruikshank. "The stories that we know today as Grimm's Fairy Tales were collected from oral tradition by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, philologists and pioneer folklorists. They began to publish the results of their work in 1812, in Germany, under the title DIE KINDER-UND HAÜSMARCHEN. The tales first appeared in English in 1823, with the publication of the first volume of German Popular Stories. The translator was Edgar Taylor, and the book's publication was an auspicious event for at least two reasons. It launched an era in which folklore and the fairy tale would stimulate writers to produce an increasingly imaginative literature for children. And German Popular Stories also put before the public the remarkable illustrations perhaps his best work of George Cruikshank ... As illustrations to these fairy tales Cruikshank's etchings have never been surpassed" (Pierpont Morgan Library, Early Children's Books and Their Illustration 197). "This is Cruikshank's most original work ... His delicate and fanciful designs fixed what fairy tale illustration ought to be once and for all in the minds of English readers (Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England 112). Cohn 354 [369]. Binding just a bit rubbed at edges. The plates in volume I are foxed and stained; the ten in volume II are pretty clean overall. An attractive set bound with their half leaves preserved in a very handsome binding. Volume II is scarce. (#179446).

Price: $3,750.00