Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #112948
Cost: $950.00

Railway Map of the Island of Sodor

W. Awdry

“ALL THE CHILDREN WHO LOVE THIS SERIES CAN NOW SEE ON THIS BRIGHTLY COLOURED MAP THE PLACES WHERE THOMAS AND HIS FRIENDS LIVE AND WORK"

AWDRY, Wilbert. Railway Map of the Island of Sodor. Where Thomas the Tank Engine and His Friends Have Their Adventures. Leicester, England: Straker Brothers, [1958]. Oblong 12mo, original pictorial blue paper wrappers, folding linen-backed map (22-1/2 by 11-1/2 inches). $950.

First edition of this large, folding, color map depicting Sodor, the imaginary island where the Railway Series is set.

This large, folding map depicts the imaginary island of Sodor, which Wilbert Awdry created for the Railways Series. The map (22- by 11-1/2-inch) features a colorful border featuring iconic images from the book as well as an elaborate key explaining essential sites on the map, from the shed where the engines live to the spot where Thomas fell down a mine. As a young boy growing up in Hampshire, Wilbert Awdry developed a fascination with railways as a result of his father's enthusiasm for them. When Awdry's family moved to Box in Wiltshire, Awdry would lie in bed at night listening to the trains on the main line of the Great Western Railway, located just yards from his house. He later wrote, "It needed little imagination to hear, in the sounds the train engine and banking engine made, what they were saying to each other… From that time there developed in my mind the idea that all steam engines had personality and could express it." When his son came down with the measles, Awdry began writing the first railways stories, which began a beloved series that ran for 28 years. "Not only does Awdry's splendid Railway series seem not to have suffered a jot from the passing of the age of steam, but it seems to have blossomed into a truly permanent landmark in 20th-century children's books" (Connolly, 29).

Map bright and fine, only minor soiling and light wear to wrappers. An exceptional copy of a rare accompaniment to the Thomas the Tank Engine series.

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