"CHRISTOPHER ROBIN HAD WHEEZLES AND SNEEZLES": LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF SONGS FROM "NOW WE ARE SIX", ONE OF ONLY 100 COPIES SIGNED BY MILNE, SHEPARD & FRASER-SIMSON
MILNE, A.A. (words). FRASER-SIMSON, H. (music). SHEPARD, E.H. (illustrations). Songs from "Now We Are Six." London: Methuen /Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew, (1927). Folio, original half navy cloth, gray paper boards, mounted printed pictorial label, uncut and largely unopened. $2000.
Limited first edition, with ten songs based on Milne's beloved poetry for children, featuring music by H. Fraser-Simson and illustrations by E.H. Shepard, number 98 of only 100 numbered copies signed by Milne, artist E.H. Shepard and composer Fraser-Simson. A splendid uncut and largely unopened copy.
Harold Fraser-Simson first set 14 poems from Milne's When We Were Very Young to a piano score in 1925, titled Fourteen Songs from "When We Were Very Young." The project proved so successful that Fraser-Simson continued composing songs based on Milne's lyrics, ultimately writing 67 of them. This folio volume, featuring Fraser-Simson's piano scores and Ernest Shepard's charming illustrations, makes Milne's incomparable verses—among them "Sneezles," "Furry Bear," "Down by the Pond" and "Cradle Song"—still more irresistible. Signed on the unnumbered limitation page by Milne, Fraser-Simson and Shepard. Also issued in the same year's first trade edition. Cutler & Stiles, 116.
Interior clean and fine; a few spots to title label on front cover, scant edge-toning to bright boards. A desirable about-fine copy.