Ant and Bee: A Bromance

ANT AND BEE was the first book of the original Ant and Bee set, first published in England in the late 1950's, early 60's It introduces the young reader to a variety of bright red three-letter words as Ant, Bee and their friend, Kind Dog, get themselves into a rollicking series of very silly scrapes.

ANT AND BEE, An Alphabetical Story for TIny Tots by Angela Banner. York: Franklin Watts. Undated. Probable First US Edition. Printed in England by Fleming and Humphreys. Delightfully illustrated by Bryan Ward. Hardcover. 5x4 inches. A somewhat worn copy of this scarce and very collectible alphabet book. Whitish areas of surface wear, rubbing to corners and edges of boards and tapping to head and tail. A bit loose at inner hinges. Lettering on cover clear and black. A Good+. Inside illustrations and text bright, a Very Good, except for two pages that were folded at corners and a few light orange crayon marks on one page and the back endpaper. The words "Ant and Bee" are pencilled in a child's printing beneath the text, "This story is all about an [fill in the blank]."  For more info: oldinkincbooks.com.

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MORE ANT AND BEE is the second volume in the Ant and Bee series. It builds upon Ant and Bee's collection of three-letter words with a very British, quirky selection of four-letter words, highlighted in red. The story begins with Ant and Bee imbibing pink lemonade in the garden beneath a hot sun. Ant remarks that he's so hot, he feels like a boiled egg--and before you know it, the two friends are embarking upon their first four-letter word, a boat that sets sail for their second four-letter word, Asia. After nearly being thrown off the boat to sleep with the fish, they're shipwrecked on an isle. After close encounters with a king, a fairy and other unlikely island inhabitants, Ant hitches a ride to England on Bee's back, where they queue up (five letters!) to board Tram Number One (introducing the word "unit") which conveys them to a typically depressing British housing estate where, undaunted, the two celebrate a jolly Xmas. Ant and Bee are last seen happily exploding a holiday cracker.

MORE ANT AND BEE, Another Alphabetical Story by Angela Banner. New York: Franklin Watts Limited. Undated. Probable 1st US Edition, printed by Straker Brothers Ltd., London. Illustrated by Bryan Ward. Hardcover. 5x4 inches. VG+. Faint rubbing to corners and head and tail of spine. Tiny whitish spot on cover. Tight and square. Vividly colored both inside and out. A lovely copy of a scarce book. More info: oldinkincbooks.com.

MORE AND MORE ANT AND BEE is a companion book to Ant and Bee and More Ant and Bee. It extends the reader's vocabulary to a bizarre array of five-letter words, which are, like the three- and four-letter words, highlighted in red. In this story, trusty Ant and Bee are asked by a mother and father to entertain their little girl while they go off to buy her secret presents. The first game the inventive insects devise involves an arrow (!) and a Yew tree. Intrepid Ant and Bee grab a ride on the speeding arrow, but they fall off right onto a slice of buttered bread. What a mess! When the arrow disappears over a fence, there ensues a hunt for the errant projectile during which Ant, Bee and the child discover a jewel from India, encounter an uncle who has a flat wheel and plays the viola, and are chastened by a mysterious nurse who seems to materialize out of thin air to prevent the little girl from using a knife to cut up a lemon and an onion which makes the nurse cry! Strangely, the  mother and father never return with those secret presents, but most children will be so caught up in the boundless nonsense, they'll have forgotten all about them.

MORE and MORE ANT and BEE, Another Alphabetical Story by Angela Banner. New York: Franklin Watts. 1963. Second printing of the 1962 First US Edition. Illustrated by Bryan Ward. Hardcover. 5x4 inches. A bright, square, tight copy with negligible rubbing at corners of the boards, Near Fine inside and out. A very appealing little rare book. For more information: oldinkincbooks.com.

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ONE, TWO, THREE WITH ANT AND BEE, in which Ant and Bee learn to count from 1 to 10. Hallelujah! Now they can take a break from their surrealistic lives! But no. All it takes is a short flight to the market to buy 1 little lettuce, 2 little tarts, 3 bananas and so on, plus a gross miscalculation of how much weight Bee can safely assume, to send poor Ant plummeting to earth in a hail of, count'em, 10 food items. Ant winds up in bed swathed in bandages from his scape to his gasket. However, all is not lost, because Bee turns out to be a devoted nurse who props Ant up with 4 plump pillows, and there are (wait for it) 10 visitors, including Kind Dog of the indefatigable nose and 6 rather sneaky ladybugs. Soon Ant is sitting on a treasure trove of 5 bags of sweets, 3 little toy aeroplanes, and 2 toy soldiers. Children will not only learn to count, they will thoroughly enjoy this "sick day" from heaven.

ONE, TWO, THREE WITH ANT AND BEE, A Counting Story by Angela Banner. New York: Franklin Watts. 1962. Third Impression. Illustrated by Bryan Ward. Hardcover, 5x4 inches. Bright, square, tight copy  with almost unnoticeable rubbing at tail of spine and one corner. Yellow cover is slightly dingy. Near Fine. For more information, go to oldinkincbooks.com.

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AROUND THE WORLD WITH ANT AND BEE. A geography lesson in which Ant gives Bee a gift Bee adores: an umbrella. When a gust of wind carries the beloved object away, the two friends set out on a grand quest. Lured by false promises, beset by disappointments and yet somehow still hopeful, Ant and Bee chase down that umbrella all over the globe, making stops in many countries.  Hearing about an umbrella in Russia, they make the arduous journey, only to find a clown whose magic umbrella rains only from underneath. They follow a lead to America and are saddened to see for themselves that the Statue of Liberty is holding up, not Bee's umbrella, but a torch (although, admittedly, the two things look very similar). In Japan, while they're delighted by the paper parasols, it's just not the same as a good, stout, British brelly. In the end, they find the umbrella right back in London, where's it's under glass at the British Museum as the "World's Smallest Umbrella."

Around the World with Ant and Bee by Angela Banner. London: Edmund Ward. 1964 Reprint. Illustrated by Bryan Ward. Hardcover, pale peach cloth. 5x4 inches. Very Good condition: tight, square, with a small amount of rubbing at edges, corners and along the front joint. Front board slightly grubby-looking with one small white rub next to the N in ANT, but all lettering and illustrations clear and strong. Tiny orange spot on rear board. For more information, go to oldinkincbooks.com.

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ANT AND BEE AND KIND DOG. With ANT AND BEE AND KIND DOG, Angela Banner uses the convention of a children's ABC to make a point about the futility of all animal (and human) striving in the face of an indifferent universe. Opening her story with a definitive statement about nothingness, "Clean air cannot be seen," she leads us on yet another grand quest with Ant, Bee and Kind Dog, this time in search of a mysterious smell. On their way, they are joined by a camel, a koala, a duck and an owl, all of whom abandon their own individual journeys in order to answer the question, "What is that smell?" The anticlimax comes when the entire troupe traverses a long jetty all the way to the end, and, without so much as looking into the water, turn around and come back again. This cannot be a simple matter of wanting to teach children how to spell "jetty." The pilgrims are nearly overcome by a torrential rain AND a blizzard of snow, after which the mysterious smell is gone. Washed away. In a crescendo of irony, the animals then go to the Zoo and ask to be let into their cages. The book closes with Ant, Bee and Kind Dog still struggling to understand what the smell in the air had been. Had it been hot bread? Cut grass? Seaweed? Smoke? Hot Chocolate? "But Kind Dog just could not remember."  In this I hear echoes of John Keats' famous Ode: "Fled is that music--Do I wake or sleep?"  Ant. Bee… Nightingale?

ANT AND BEE AND KIND DOG, An Alphabetical Story by Angela Banner. New York: Franklin Watts Inc. First US Edition, 1963. Hardcover, 5x4 inches, in green cloth. Very Good condition, boards slightly dingy but tight and square, with slight rubbing at corners & minor tapping at tail of spine. A few small spots on title page, otherwise interior is perfect. For more information, go to oldinkincbooks.com.

Tempt a Child to Read: Journeys Through Bookland

JOURNEYS THROUGH BOOKLAND

A New and Original Plan for Reading 
Applied to the World's Best Literature for Children
Charles H. Sylvester, Editor

Bellows-Reeve Company: Chicago. 1922.  New Edition (1st Ed. 1909).
10-volume hardcover set of children's stories.

Royal blue boards, embossed design around set-in cover illustration, bright gold gilt on spine. Decorative endpapers, neat dedication on flyleaf. Abounding with color & black/white illustrations. Expected wear at corners & sides of binding. More wear to Volume 1 with discrete tear at tail of frontispiece; Volume 10 has small rip at top of spine. All ten volumes tight & vivid. VG to VG+.  For more info: oldinkincbooks.com.

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The Lost Child-Heros of Hector Malot

Hector Malot (1830-1907) was a prolific writer of children's stories who penned some of the great popular classics of French literature. His children's classics were stellar examples of a genre that extolled the ideal of the noble child who overcomes adversity through right-mindedness, honesty and loyalty--behavior so dear to the hearts of parents of every country & epoch.  From the introduction to the American edition of his 1869 novel, Ronnie: "Noble character, richly honest purpose and loyal endeavor shine through the pages of this book, brushing aside hardship and peril to mark Ronnie as a lively, inspiring boy who will long be remembered." 

Malot's photograph seems to me to project the forlorn appeal of his young characters.

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NOBODY'S GIRL (Deluxe Edition  1929)

New York: Cupples & Leon Company. 1929. Deluxe Edition of the first American edition of 1922. Originally published in France in 1893 as En Famille. A companion to the deluxe edition of Nobody's Boy, 1930. Translated & adapted by Florence Crewe Jones. Eight vibrant color illustrations by Thelma Gooch. 9 ½" tall x  7 ⅛ " wide. 318 pages. Red cloth binding with a subtle grain, an inset paste-down cover illustration of a young, innocent-looking, slightly raggedy waif cast out of a distant village & alone in the world.  Cover slightly worn with a bit of rubbing to corners & a tiny corner tear. Raised gilt titles on the cover are bright. Spine has a few small spots & gilt a bit dulled.Hinge between dedication  & half-title pages slightly loose w/a small amount of light staining. VG+. Neat original owner's dedication opposite half-title page. This book is for sale on my website: Old Ink Inc Rare Books.

NOBODY'S BOY (Deluxe  Edition 1930)

Publisher: Cupples & Leon Company, New York, 1930. First published in France in 1878 as Sans Famille. This Deluxe Edition of the first American edition of 1922. Translated & adapted by Florence Crewe Jones, with eight charming, richly rendered color illustrations by Thelma Gooch.  A companion to the deluxe edition of Nobody's Girl, 1929. 9 ½" tall x 7 ⅛" wide, 333 pages. Brown textured cloth cover with a large paste-down inset cover illustration of raggedy boy trodding the cobblestones of a village, his only companions three dogs & a monkey in a little red jacket who sits on his shoulder. Cover is slightly worn with minor rubbing to the corners & gilt letters.  Spine is clean with slightly faded gilt.  Binding tight. Neat original owner's dedication opposite half-title page. VG+. This book is for sale on my website: Old Ink Inc Rare Books.

RONNIE  (1st American Edition)

New York: Cupples & Leon Company, New York. 1937. First American edition.Originally published in France in 1869 as Les adventures de Romaine Kalbris.  Hardcover. Blue cloth boards with color medallion of a boy pasted down & inset on cover. Four black & white illustrations by Thelma Gooch. Translated & adapted from the French by Florence Crewe-Jones. Sunning to the spine & minor exterior edge wear, rubbing & soiling. Original owner's name faded & in a childish script on inside of front cover. G+. For sale on my website.

For further information about these and other rare
books, go to my website: Old Ink Inc Rare Bookseller.

Gertrude Stein read The Great Gatsby & saw that it was good...

From a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald: 

"Here we are and have read your book and it is a good book. I like the melody of your dedication ["Once again to Zelda"] it shows that you have a background of beauty and tenderness and that is a comfort. The next good thing is that you write naturally in sentences and that too is a comfort. You write naturally in sentences and one can read all of them and that among other things is a comfort. . . . You make a modern world and a modern orgy strangely enough it never was done until you did it in This Side of Paradise. My belief in This Side of Paradise was alright. This is as good a book and different and older and that is what one does, one does not get better but different and older and that is always a pleasure. . . . "

Gertrude Stein cracks me up. ___________________________________________________________________

"In my younger and more vulnerable years," I saw the 1974 film of The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford as Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy, and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, featuring a Karen Black so lubricious, a teenage girl wanted to shade her eyes.

As I remember it, and this may be wildly inaccurate, the movie began with a long shot of Redford standing on a dock with his back to the camera, making a frail open-handed gesture into the distance.  The camera then moved closer and closer in.  From Gatsby:

"...a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling.  Involuntarily I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock."

With the camera  tight to the back of his head, which filled the entire screen, Redford slowly turned & looked directly at the audience with an expression I can't describe but will never forget. Likewise, I'll never forget the long, quivering, palpable gasp from every woman in the theater.  My first, and with Karen my second,  encounter with adult female desire.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott.

The Great Gatsby (First Edition, first issue).

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. First Edition. First Edition, first printing. First issue, with all four textual variants present, including: page 60, line 16 "chatter" vs. "echolalia," page 119, line 22 "northern" vs. "southern," page 205, lines 9-10 "sick in tired" vs. "sickantired," and page 211, lines 7-8 "Union Street Station" vs. "Union Station." Scribner's seal on copyright page. Near Fine condition without the rare dust jacket. Quite clean and trim, with a tiny stain at the middle of the spine, a small spot and very light soil on the rear board, and a small, tidy owner name at the top of the front flyleaf. A very attractive copy. $4125

Please visit my website: Old Ink Inc Rare Bookseller to see other wonderful books.

The Book of Fair Women, Photographs by E. O. Hoppe'

Old Ink Inc Rare Bookseller

E. O. Hoppe’                                               
The Book of Fair Women

32 Gravure Plates
Alfred A. Knopf.  No date on title or copyright page. 32 Plates. No. 454 of 500 copies.  Introduction + two essays "Beauty" and "Charm" by Richard King, 1922.  A large-format limited edition with a hand-made batik paper binding and tipped-in gravure plates.  Unfortunately, the batik cover has not aged well;  however the inside is Good, the pages firmly bound, and the lovely plates are near Fine.  Most of the plates are masterfully tipped-in and secure, some have come loose, and one is missing.

Hebe, England

E. O. Hope' was an Edwardian Modernist and one of the most successful photographers of his time.  His presentation of "ideal types" of beauty include Nordic, Latin, Asian, Polynesian and African with British, European and American beauties culled from the age's fashionable and upper class icons was controversial & garnered a lot of publicity.

Madam Mika Mikun, Poland

  




London's National Portrait Gallery is currently running a show of  Hoppe's photographs that features the photos from The Book of Fair Women. For further information about the show and Hoppe', please go to the following link:  Hoppe', National Portrait Gallery.

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Jane Austen's Visit to Stoneleigh Abbey

"There is no such thing as real life for an author of genius: he must create it himself and then create the consequences.  The charm of Mansfield Park can be fully enjoyed only when we adopt its conventions, its rules, its enchanting make-believe.  Mansfield Park never existed, and its people never lived."

- Vladimir Nabokov

With a most respectful nod to another author of genius: Not so.  Mansfield Park--its setting and its inhabitants--was based on Stoneleigh Abby, for four hundred and thirty-five years the county seat of Jane Austen's relatives, the Leigh Family. 

In August of 1806, Jane Austen, her mother and her sister visited their relatives, the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey, very properly chaperoned by their cousin, the Reverend Thomas Leigh.  The  purpose of the journey was to secure the Reverend's inheritance from the fifth Lord Leigh. 

While at Stoneleigh, Jane wrote a letter to her niece describing the elegant house and beautiful grounds. Many of the rooms and furnishings, and even its view appear in Mansfield Park and Persuasion.

"Now I wish to give you some idea of the inside of this vast house - first premising that there are forty-five windows in front, which is quite straight, with a flat roof, fifteen in a row. You go up a considerable flight of steps to the door, for some of the offices are underground, and enter a large hall. On the right hand is the dining-room and within that the breakfast-room, where we generally sit; and reason good, 'tis the only room besides the chapel, which looks towards the view. On the left hand of the hall is the best drawing-room and within a smaller one. 

These rooms are rather gloomy with brown wainscot and dark crimson furniture, so we never use them except to walk through to the old picture gallery. Behind the smaller drawing-room is the state- - an alarming apartment, with its high, dark crimson velvet bed, just fit for an heroine. The old gallery opens into it. Behind the hall and parlours there is a passage all across the house, three staircases and two small sitting-rooms. There are twenty-six bedchambers in the new part of the house and a great many, some very good ones, in the old. There is also another gallery, fitted up with modern prints on a buff paper, and a large billiard-room. Every part of the house and offices is kept so clean, that were you to cut your finger I do not think you could find a cobweb to wrap it up in. I need not have written this long letter, for I have a presentiment that if  these good people live until next year you will see it all with your own eyes."

In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price notices the "crimson velvet cushions on the ledge of the family gallery in the chapel."  According to the official Stoneleigh Abbey website those same velvet cushions can still be found in the chapel at Stoneleigh. Fanny's description of the rooms, "all lofty and many large, amply furnished in the taste of fifty years back, with shining floors, solid mahogany, rich damask, marble gilding and carving" sound very similar to Jane's of Stoneleigh.

Fanny's view from the house's west front "looked across a lawn to the beginning of the avenue," just as it is at Stoneleigh. And Jane's mention in her letter of the subtly-put excesses of Stoneleigh's "forty-five windows" sounds suspiciously like the tone she takes with her character, Henry Crawford, who clucks over the many windows: "more than could be supposed to be of any use than to contribute to the window tax."

The Abbey's impressive array of ancestral portraits includes one of Jane's Aunt Betty, Elizabeth Lord, a bit of a rapscallion whose scandalous career resolved with a happy ending.  She may have been the inspiration for Anne Elliot, the heroine of Jane's novel Persuasion.

Jane was also quite taken with the personalities, habits and especially the intrigues of her much wealthier relatives. Much of her fiction's comedy concerns the relations between the middle and upper classes.  Austen, a genteel "poor cousin" to the Leighs, just as her heroine Fanny Price is to the Bertrams, transformed the Leighs of Stoneleigh into the Bertrams of Mansfield Park, liberally deploying what Nabokov called her "little gems of ironic wit."

The Stoneleigh Edition of the Novels and Letters of Jane Austen wa published in 1906 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Jane's stay at Stoneleigh Abbey.  These twos volumes are from the 909th set of 1250.  Emma, by Jane Austen. For more information, please go to my bookstore, Old Ink, Inc. Rare Books

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