Collections of an Only Child: Seventy Years a Bibliophile, the Library of Justin G. Schiller

(Burbank, California): The Walt Disney Company, 1988. Oblong folio. 12 grey wove paper sheets. Presentation album from The Walt Disney Company to Maurice Sendak. Comprising nine original graphite production drawings on paper of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters (ca. 1933-38), by Ben Sharpsteen, Dick Lundy, Huszti Horvath, Les Clark, Dick Huemer, and Hardie Gramatky; each with Disney production numbers at bottom in pencil, and laid in a protective vinyl sleeve; with gilt printed title-page and list of included drawings. Original padded red calf-covered boards, front board printed in yellow cartoon-letters "Mickey Mouse"; in velvet bag with gold tasseled drawstrings, and in red cardboard box.

A superb presentation album of original 1930s Mickey Mouse production drawings, gifted to Maurice Sendak in 1988 by The Walt Disney Company. As Justin Schiller explains, "Sendak and the Disney Studio worked together for a short period during the middle 1980s, during which time Disney proposed an animated version of Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak rejected it and the project was shelved. Sometime later the Where the Wild Things Are cartoon was discovered and, without asking permission, it was included on a nation-wide Disney TV broadcast. This album of original studies for early Disney films was given by the Studio to Sendak as an apology for this error. It includes work by most of the pioneering animators, including Hardie Gramatky (who did "Little Toot")." In 1988, Sendak would also contribute the introduction to a reprint of the Mickey Mouse Movie Stories, a book featuring story adaptations of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons from the 1930s.

The nine images within are as follows:

Three stills from Mickey's Gala Premiere (1933), including Scene 8 (#78): animated by Ben Sharpsteen, and depicting Minnie and Mickey Mouse strutting up the red carpet, and showing Mickey with leash attached to Pluto's head. Scene 27 (#46): animated by Sharpsteen, and depicting Mickey reacting with alarm. Scene 48 (#117): animated by Dick Lundy, and showing Greta Garbo about to kiss Mickey. 

Three scenes from The Band Concert (1935), including Scene 1 (#81): animated by Huszti Horvath, and showing a tight and crowded scene with Mickey as bandleader among a crowd that includes Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Dippy Dawg (Goofy) and others. Scene 5 (#82): animated by Les Clark, and depicting a full body image of Mickey as bandleader. Scene 12, (#29): animated by Dick Huemer, and depicting Mickey as bandleader, with a look of anger on his face.

Three full and partially colored scenes from Thru The Mirror (1938), including two drawings from Scene 20, animated by Dick Lundy, including (#26): a full-color drawing of Mickey in top hat bowing, with extensive production notes; (#254), partially-colored drawing showing Mickey balancing his top hat on a cane on his nose. Scene 34, animated by Hardie Gramatky, (#150): partially-colored and showing a full-body Mickey sword fighting with an anthropomorphized King of Hearts card.

A fantastic and unique piece.