The Golden Basket
Price: $1,200.00
Bemelmans, Ludwig. Hard Cover. New York The Viking Press, 1936. First Edition. Fine / Dust Jacket Included.
Illustrated by the author in color and black and white, including a two-page color spread on pp. 13-14. First edition, first printing. Inscribed by the author on the title page on October 15, 1936, one month after publication. Publisher's red cloth, with blindstamped swan to front board, and red and yellow pictorial endpapers; in its original pictorial wraparound dust jacket, lettered in yellow. Fine book; very good unclipped dust jacket, with light toning to spine, light wear to spine ends, and some edgewear including a few small closed tears to rear panel. Overall, a lovely inscribed copy. "The Golden Basket" is the name of the hotel where Mr. Horatio Coggeshall and his two daughters, Celeste and Melisandre, come to stay during their visit to Bruges. Here they befriend Jan, son of the hotel's proprietor, and other members of the hotel, all while seeing the beautiful sights of the city. The book received a prestigious Newbery Honor in 1937. In one of the book's episodes, the family runs into a group of twelve school girls led by a tall nun. Among these girls is a bold child named Madeline (Madeline is pictured on the rear panel of the dust jacket, and on page 52, waving from a doorway). Bemelmans went on to write his all-time classic children's book, Madeline (1939), about this character and her exploits. Bemelmans wrote five sequels to the book, including Madeline's Rescue (1953) and Madeline and the Bad Hat (1956). Item #LBEM004
