BILLY POPGUN

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1912. First printing. Very good.. First edition of Winter's best and scarcest book, the childhood copy of Arthur Houghton Jr., whose endowment made possible the founding of Harvard's Houghton Library. A fantasy trip taken by little Billy (who had a pop-gun), this book immediately brings to mind similar books by Maurice Sendak in which little boys navigate fantastical landscapes half a century later, such as WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN. This is Arthur Houghton Jr.'s copy, gifted to him in 1912, when he was only six years old. A nice copy of a wonderful fantasy, notoriously scarce in collectible condition. 10.5'' x 8''. Original quarter tan cloth, grey paper boards with pictorial paste-on. Green pictorial endpapers. Illustrated by Winter with 8 fabulous color plates, plus line illustrations in-text. 61, [1] pages. Careful repair to gutters of text block. Moderate wear and spotting to boards and spine, some margin finger smudges.