Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde

Berlin: Verlag Ullstein, 1923. Very Good. Berlin: Verlag Ullstein, 1923. First Edition. Octavo (21.5cm.); publisher's red cloth over pictorial boards printed in black, black spine titling; 186,[6]pp.; illus. throughout. Boards significantly toned to tan, though evidence of the board's original blue color still present to rear cover, spine rather cocked, margins rubbed with brief exposure at corners, contemporary pencil gift inscription and bookseller ticket to rear pastedown, else a Very Good, still quite attractive, clean and sound copy.

First edition of the unlikely inspiration for a Disney film whose staying power has arguably surpassed the original source. "Bambi" the novel by the Austrian author, journalist, and enthusiastic hunter Felix Salten seems hardly a tale for children (though it was packaged as such), oppressed as it is by an atmosphere of violence and existential dread. The moral of the tale, ultimately, is a form of solitary self-preservation that would put a twinkle in Ayn Rand's eye. "This is 'The Fountainhead' with fawns" (Kathryn Schulz, "Eat Prey Love," in "The New Yorker" (January 17, 2022).

NB: An Austrian bookseller describes this binding as possibly a later state dating ca. 1927. However, publisher's advertisements bound in rear of this copy all feature books published before 1923.