Books

First edition, first printing, with the five-line colophon, signed by the author on the front free endpaper. An early advert for the book stated "one is tempted to say that not since Alice has there been such a wonderland. The difference is that James is all boy and what transpires in the story is anything but Victorian". The publisher wrote to Dahl on 5 July 1960 stating "If this doesn't become a little classic, I can only say that I think you will not have been dealt with justly" (Treglown, p. 124). Described as "rude, naughty, anti-adult, creepy, and sometimes cruel" (ODNB), James and the Giant Peach was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996, which was nominated for the Academy Award for "Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score" the following year. There have been numerous stage adaptations and one musical version of the book. Quarto. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, design to front cover in blind, top edge yellow, green endpapers. With pictorial dust jacket. Housed in a custom red morocco-backed folding box by the Chelsea Bindery. Colour frontispiece, 4 colour plates, 1 tinted plate, 19 illustrations to text, of which 10 are tinted, all by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. Worn at lower corners; jacket slightly toned, extremities a little rubbed, small nick to foot of spine, unclipped: a near-fine copy in a very good jacket. The New York Times, 26 October 1961.

James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published in 1961 and tells the story of a young English orphan boy who enters a gigantic, magical peach, and has a wild and surreal cross-world adventure with seven magically-altered garden bugs he meets along the way. The novel is known for its whimsical narrative, imaginative description, and creative characters.