THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, ILLUSTRATED BY W.W. DENSLOW OF OZ FAME

DENSLOW, William Wallace. Denslow's Night Before Christmas. New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1902. Slim quarto, original gray cloth, mounted cover illustration, pictorial endpapers. $1800.

First edition by the illustrator of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, of this cherished Yuletide poem, with numerous full-page color plates.

The anonymous poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," later attributed to the Rev. Clement Moore, first appeared in 1823 in the Troy Sentinel, marking "a division between the Puritan antipathy toward Christmas and acceptance of the holiday" (Chronology of American Literature). This edition boasts numerous illustrations, many full-page and in color, by onetime newspaper cartoonist and poster designer William Wallace Denslow, perhaps best known for his work on L. Frank Baum's Father Goose (1899) and especially The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). His "conceptions of the characters and landscapes," Denslow thought, "contributed immeasurably to the book's popularity" (Fricke, 22). In 1902, Denslow turned his attention to Moore's famous Christmas poem, which became an enormous best-seller that season. With the considerable profits from his illustrated books, "he bought a small island in Bermuda, built a 'castle' on it, and crowned himself King Denslow I of Denslow Island" (Michael Patrick Hearn). Binding in second state (cloth rather than boards).

Interior near-fine with minor soiling to first few leaves, inner hinges expertly reinforced; front panel of cloth lightly soiled. A very good copy.