MR. RABBIT AND THE LOVELY PRESENT

New York: Harper & Row, 1962. Fine in fine jacket.. Signed early printing of Zolotow's classic 1962 children's story, with original signature by Sendak, whose eerie illustrations made this one of the seven Caldecott Honor Books of his career. Sendak's Mr. Rabbit, a long-legged affair with a human's height and postures but a lagomorph's head, guides Zolotow's little girl on her search for a gift for her mother through an idyllic natural landscape with a deep darkness waiting just under the hedges, beyond the trees. No Sendak works can truly be called unappreciated or underrated, but MR. RABBIT is a particular revelation. 6.75'' x 8''. Original pictorial boards. In original unpriced pictorial dust jacket with "40-80" printed on front flap. Silver Caldecott Honor Book seal to front jacket panel. Illustrated by Sendak in color. Unpaginated. Signed by Sendak on title page. Small price sticker to rear jacket panel. Minor edgewear.