Nutcracker

New York: Crown Publishers, 1984 Pictures by Maurice Sendak, including nine 2-page color spreads. Translated by Ralph Manheim. First trade edition, first printing. Signed by Sendak on the half-title page. Publisher's dark purple cloth, with front board and spine lettered in silver foil, front board decorated in blind, and pictorial endpapers; in its original dark blue dust jacket, with nutcracker illustration by Sendak to front panel, mouse illustration to rear panel, lettered in black, red, and white. About fine book, with light toning to edges, and a faint spot to fore-edge of textblock; fine unclipped dust jacket. With 12-page uncorrected proof copy laid in ("non-consecutive pages"), with front wrapper matching design on front panel of dust jacket. Fine uncorrected proof copy, with just a hint of edgewear. Overall, a wonderful copy of this beautifully illustrated book. Originally published in 1816 and titled "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," this classic Christmas story opens on Christmas Eve, when a young girl named Marie is gifted a nutcracker with a broken jaw. Later that night, when Marie is alone with the nutcracker, he comes alive and fends off a horde of mice led by the Mouse King. Eventually, through Marie's love, the nutcracker is transformed back into a human, and the two marry and travel to the doll kingdom. An 1844 retelling of the story by Alexandre Dumas (author of The Three Musketeers), was used as the basis of Tchaikovsky's masterful holiday ballet, The Nutcracker. For this edition, Sendak based his illustrations on the Pacific Northwest Ballet's successful production of The Nutcracker, which he designed sets and costumes for. The production premiered in 1983 and emphasized some of the weirder elements of Hoffmann's story.. Inscribed by Illustrator. First Trade. Hard Cover. Fine/Dust Jacket Included. Illus. by Maurice Sendak.