signed first edition
1962 · New York
by Yashima, Taro
New York: Viking Press, 1962. Near fine in very good plus dust jacket.. Scarce first edition of the story of how Yashima's daughter Momo makes friends with a painfully shy little boy, with an original watercolor by the artist. Taro Yashima, real name Jun Iwamatsu, was an antifascist activist in addition to an artist; he met his wife Mitsu in the Japanese Proletarian Artists' League. After being arrested and tortured by the Japanese government for their activism, they fled to America; they took on their pseudonyms when they were hired by the Office of War Information, and later the Office of Strategic Services, to protect their family still living in (truncated)