Tin Fiddle

TRIPP, Edward. The Tin Fiddle. Pictures by Maurice Sendak. NY: Oxford University Press, 1954. Oblong 8vo, [39]pp. Pink cloth stamped in black. Brown endpapers; b&w illustrations on nearly every page. Spine ends and corners a bit rubbed, upper and lower edges a tad sunned, binding a tad loose, else an internally clean copy in original color pictorial dust jacket (half-inch chip at top of spine panel – “T” in “The” nearly gone; three-quarters of an inch chip missing from bottom of spine panel; 5” closed tear going from top of front hinge to two-inches into the jacket; one-inch tear through “F” in “Fiddle” onto rear panel; several other small tears at extremities). Nonetheless, an attractive copy that presents well.  Inscribed by the artist, Caldecott Medalist Maurice Sendak.

First edition. This delightful tale was written by Tripp when he was inspired by a drawing Sendak had sketched of a boy playing the fiddle for a group of animals.  A wonderful, early Sendak work issued two years before the publication of the first book Sendak both wrote and illustrated and 11 years before his groundbreaking Where the Wild Things Are.