Books

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939. First edition of this children's classic with the date of 1939 on the title page. Oblong quarto, original tan cloth. A very good copy in a very good price-clipped dust jacket with some light expert restoration to the spine extremities. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Published in the midst of the Great Depression, Virginia Lee Burton’s classic favorite Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel ranks among the National Education Association’s “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children.” “Taking her cue from her small sons, Aristides and Michael, Burton chose subjects that would intrigue children... Mary Ann, the steam shovel (Burton’s books) have heroes and heroines children can understand and enjoy, ingenious and satisfactory endings and lively illustrations. The books survive because they exhibit so effectively the elements most basic to children’s literature” (Silvey, 109-10). The beloved story was adapted into a short animated film directed…