Books and Manuscripts

London: Jonathan Cape, (1930). First edition. 8vo. (iv), 368 pp. Illustrated with color frontispiece and 9 color plates, and numerous in-text black and white illustrations. Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt; top edge stained red; dust-jacket wanting.

A fine copy of Kay Nielsen's final commissioned work, a collection of 20 fairy tales from around the world, profusely illustrated. As the demand for book illustrators dwindled in his home city of Copenhagen throughout the 1930s, Nielsen decided to move to California to find a job in Hollywood. After a recommendation from his friend and author, Joe Grant, he landed a job producing art for Walt Disney. In this role he contributed to many of Disney's beloved films, most notably Fantasia (1940) and The Little Mermaid (1989, posthumously).