A Good Man and His Good Wife

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1944. First edition. [32] pp. Publisher’s oatmeal cloth, lettered and decorated in red, with the dust jacket. Some offsetting to front endpaper from laid-in newspaper article (a dismissive review of a 1946 exhibition by Reinhardt). The jacket shows heavy wear with some chips, detached at the spine. Rare in any jacket.

The first and only children’s book illustrated by irascible abstract artist Ad Reinhardt, and the first book by Ruth Krauss, who went on to publish several books with Maurice Sendak. Inscribed on the front free endpaper, “for Lolita from Ad Reinhardt.” We can find no instances of Reinhardt’s signature other than on his paintings, it is very rare, as is this book (which was reissued in 1962 with another illustrator’s work).