Charlotte's Web: Illustrated by Garth Williams.

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1952. WILLIAMS, Garth. . Charlotte's Web. Illustrated by Garth Williams. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1952.

Full description:

WHITE, E.B.. Charlotte's Web. Illustrated by Garth Williams. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1952.

First edition, first issue with stated "First Edition" and publisher's code "I-B" on verso of title-page. Octavo (8 x 5 3/8 inches; 202 x 137 mm). [8], 184 pp. With numerous illustrations in the text. In publisher's price-clipped dust jacket.

Original beige cloth stamped in blue and black on front board and spine. Blue pictorial endpapers. In publisher's price-clipped dust jacket. Cloth of front board with some very light spots. Jacket with some light sunning and foxing. The head and tail of the jacket spine with some minor flaking and some light rubbing to joints. A eighth-inch closed tear to bottom of front panel. Previous owner Thomas Lovejoy's bookplate on half-title. Lovejoy was an American ecologist and former President of the Amazon Biodiversity Center. He was also the director of the conservation program at World Wildlife Fund-U.S.. Overall a very good copy, internally very clean.

"Charlotte's Web earned critical acclaim upon its release—Eudora Welty notably called it "just about perfect"—and it quickly became a beloved children's classic. While humorous and charming, the novel also contains important lessons. For example, Fern's caring for Wilbur teaches her responsibility, and she realizes that if she stands up for what she believes in she can make a difference in the world. Charlotte and Wilbur's friendship, despite their differences in nature, teaches tolerance. As he grows up, like any child, Wilbur learns to cope with fear, loss, mortality, and loneliness. Although a story of life and death, it is also full of warmth, with silly characters such as the geese and the snobby sheep. In addition, Charlotte's Web contains a wealth of detail about spiders and other animals, which White drew from his own life on a farm. Wilbur was allegedly inspired by an ailing pig that White tried unsuccessfully to nurse back to health. The incident served as the basis for the essay 'Death of a Pig,' which was published in 1948, four years before the release of Charlotte's Web." (Britannica).

HBS 68886.

$1,000.