Double-signed and doodled.

BECHSTEIN, Ludwig; Axel SCHEFFLER [Illus.]; Julia DONALDSON [Trans.] ~ The Gloomster. Signed by the illustrator and translator, with a drawing.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Faber and Faber, London: 2011.

Small 8vo., green publisher's boards, lettered in white to spine with publisher's device to foot; dark grey endpapers; together in the unclipped printed dustwrapper (£9.99) featuring a design by Faber and illustrations by Axel Scheffler; proliferated throughout with coloured drawings by the same; THE BOOK fine, THE WRAPPER near-fine, with some creasing along spine, and some splash marks (tea? coffee?) to the lower panel. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This copy signed by both the translator Julia Donaldson and the illustrator Axel Scheffler, with a doodle by Scheffler to the front free endpaper replicating the title vignette. A lovely collaboration between three important figures. Ludwig Bechstein (1801 –1860) was a German writer best known today for his collections of folk and fairy stories, with his 'German Fairy Tale Book' proving even more popular than the Brothers Grimm's collection when it was first published in 1845. The illustrations are provided by Axel Scheffler, best known for 'The Gruffalo' (published 1999), and the various iterations which followed from it. Donaldson, with whom he often collaborates, here provides the translation - it was her first attempt at translating, and is described by her as "rather like doing a fiendishly difficult Sudoku or cryptic crossword". A "delightfully dark depiction of misanthropic misery" (Dust wrapper). Scarce with these attributes.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Fine
JACKET: Near Fine