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Item 321 Aesop's Fables with great moral lessons for chilidren(2016) Sadaf, NadiaThis is a curious -- perhaps even strange -- paperback book of 97 pages. Its cover almost exactly replicates that of a similar paperback in Thai. This version, by contrast, does not admit a publisher. Like the Thai copy, it has no title-page inside. Instead, it begins with a T of C from 1 to 10. Then it seems to begin immediately with fables in Arabic. By contrast with that other book, there is not a word of English in this book. The cover shows four animals in its lower half.Item Aesop's Fables(North-South Books, 2006) Zwerger, Selected; Zwerger, Lisbeth; Selected and Lisbeth ZwergerHere is a second printing of a book already in the collection in its first printing. I will repeat my comments on that copy. This is the sixth version I have found of Lisbeth Zwerger's Aesop book. Her "Aesop: 12 Fabeln" appeared in 1989 as a large-format book. Two large English versions also appeared, apparently at the same time. There has been also a smaller English version and an even smaller German version. Cover pictures on other versions are either of the dancing camel or of TMCM. Here we have FC on both the cover and the front dust-jacket. This lovely book measures 9½" x 8¾". I still find Zwerger's artistry enchanting. I cannot check the various English translations right now. I am curious because the translation here, unattributed, is copyrighted by North-South Books in 2006. The dust jacket speaks of this book as a "reissue of Lisbeth Zwerger's gorgeously illustrated edition." The back cover and back dust-jacket both put at the top "12 Fables by Aesop," the original German title.Item Aesop's Fables(Square Fish: Henry Holt and Company, 2012) Hague, Selected; Hague, Michael; Selected and Michael HagueAs so often happens, I presumed that this paperback book of 28 pages was a duplicate of something already in the collection. As so often happens, I was wrong. Square Fish is the publisher now, which is described on the back cover as an imprint of MacMillan, even though the title page still has Henry Holt and Company after Square Fish. I still enjoy the title-page's monkey-artist sitting on a book and creating a pen-and-ink sketch of a dandy fox. This monkey comes complete with beret and scarf! This copy means that I have been finding Michael Hague Aesop books for thirty-five years!Item Aesop's Fables(North-South Books, 2006) Zwerger, Selected; Zwerger, Lisbeth; Selected and Lisbeth ZwergerHere is a second printing of a book already in the collection in its first printing. I will repeat my comments on that copy. This is the sixth version I have found of Lisbeth Zwerger's Aesop book. Her "Aesop: 12 Fabeln" appeared in 1989 as a large-format book. Two large English versions also appeared, apparently at the same time. There has been also a smaller English version and an even smaller German version. Cover pictures on other versions are either of the dancing camel or of TMCM. Here we have FC on both the cover and the front dust-jacket. This lovely book measures 9½" x 8¾". I still find Zwerger's artistry enchanting. I cannot check the various English translations right now. I am curious because the translation here, unattributed, is copyrighted by North-South Books in 2006. The dust jacket speaks of this book as a "reissue of Lisbeth Zwerger's gorgeously illustrated edition." The back cover and back dust-jacket both put at the top "12 Fables by Aesop," the original German title.Item Aesop's Fables, new versified, from the best English editions in three parts(Robert Peck, 1803) Gent, H. Steers,I quote an online description: "Despite the impression given by the title page that this is merely a verse translation from the English of Aesop's Fables there is in fact a large element of original verse. The volume starts with a verse dedication to the Earl of Carlisle, mentioning his embassy to America. Each of the early fables is preceded by a verse addressed to a contemporary figure, for example Thomas Grimston, William Eddis, John Blades, Francis Const, Philip Leslie, Edward Topham, R. B. Sheridan, Charles James Fox etc. This address is usually extensive and sometimes longer the actual Fable itself." Where this quotation writes "addressed," I wonder if the better expression might be "dedicated." This edition is known online but seems quite rare. This copy lacks 209-218, the last two-and-a-half fables. There is a T of C at the beginning. The first part, 41 fables, seem all to have dedicatees. The second part, #42-100, lack them. The fulsome praise of the dedicatees and the "poetic" elaboration of the fables is not our taste today. I am however delighted to have found this unusual fable creation from a bygone era. The title-page continues: "sold by J. Harris, (successor to E. Newbery,) corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard; and E. Williams, No II, Strand, London; also by Rawson and Rodford, Lowgate, Hull; M. Turner, Beverley; J. Etherington, Driffield; G. Sagg, Malton; Turner and Ainsworth, Scarborough; W. A. Henderson, Durham; J. Wolstenholme, Minster-Yard, York; T. Binns, Leeds; W. Sheardown, Dorchester; and all the principal booksellers."Item The Beauty of Being: A Collection of Fables, Short stories & Essays(2Leaf Press, 2018) Oyewole, Abiodun; Introduction by Felipe LucianoThis paperback book seems to include eighteen short stories that dig into the mystery of life. I read and enjoyed the first two, which are surely more complex than a fable. In the first, "The Tree of Life," a couple come to violate a grandmother's admonition that plucking a flower from the beautiful tree of prosperity will destroy the tree. They do, and soon the neighborhood has stripped the tree of flowers. The offending young woman realizes what she has done, runs to the tree and hugs it, and pleads "Please grow flowers again." The second story is an account of a wild escapade in Costa Rica, including help from locals and some silly gambling by the narrator. His rental car is deeply damaged, and he "tries to sell" the unlikely story to Nissan. They accept the story, and soon enough the advertising department at Nissan publishes it as a commercial. Thus the narrator has just given Nissan a great story for free, and he views the commercial built on it a few months later. The stories or "chapters" are in prose except for Chapter 3, which seems to be in verse. I ran across several proofreading errors along the way.Item The Book of the Bear: Being Twenty-one Tales newly translated from the Russian(The Nonesuch Press, 1926) Harrison, Jane; Mirrlees, Hope; Garnett, RayThis little (4" x 6¼") book offers delightful illustrations to various traditional Russian stories, including several fables. I watch for the attributions in the beginning T of C and find those stories attributed to Krylov, like "The Bear's Dinner Party" (30), where Mishka dances like a drunken fool and is praised by the fox. When the wolf queries the fox, she answers something like "It makes him happy and gets us a dinner invitation!" Other Krylov fables are "The Hermit and the Bear" (50) and "The Bear and the Bees" (75). For fable-lovers, there are also "The Industrious Bear" (56) and "The Two Friends" (61). The three-color illustrations are well done. Do not miss the epilogue "To Bad Children" on 108!Item Broderies & Ouvrages de Dames, Les Fables de La Fontaine, Album #4(Broderies & Ouvrages de Dames, 1920)Here is a curious addition to the collection: an oversized (10½" x 14¼") paperback pamphlet of 32 pages offering full-sized patterns for embroidered representations of 32 La Fontaine fables. The designs are not complex. The paper is fragile, but the pamphlet is surprisingly well preserved. The cover shows a reflective milkmaid looking down on spilt milk. This is our third acquisition from Mexico. The first two came during a personal visit to Juarez. I could not find this journal on the web, but it did lead me to find an embroiderer's image for FC from the same era!Item Cautionary Fables & Fairytales: Africa Edition(Kel McDonald, 2014) McDonald, Kel; Stotts, Taneka; VariousThis paperbound book is parallel to the 2016 Cautionary Fables & Fairytales: Asia Edition: Old Tales of Magic and Woe. This copy adds the subtitle "Old Tales of Magic and Woe" only on its back cover, not on either the title-page or the front cover. I again find the stories on the border of fable. Like that book, this is a "graphic novel" including, as the beginning T of C shows, 15 stories rendered in black-and-white. I sampled four of them and found good stories, none of them classic fables. "The Jackal and the Wolf" (67) starts telling a story and then translates it into doomed action. "Frog and Snake Never Play Together" (69) is a sad story of two young people warned against playing with those whom their parents deem to be enemies. It asks what would happen if they had not been so warned. "The Girl Who Married a Lion" (161) puts a theory to test. "Is sister's husband a lion? Let us put their two sons in a cage and see if a lion attacks them." The lion attacks, and so everyone can apparently be sure that their father is not a lion. Hmmmm…. "Concerning the Hawk and the Owl" (169) may be closest to a classic fable. The hawk has been awarded the right to choose his favorite prey with impunity. He learns that it is better to attack chickens than owls. The former scream but do nothing; the latter are silent but attack back in the dark of night. While the Asia book was published by Amazon's own company for "comiXology," I can find no claim by whoever published this book. The Ebay listing gives Kel McDonald as the publisher. Did Amazon see a good thing and buy him out?Item Fables d'Ésope illustrées(Éditions Usborne, 2015) Susanna Davidson; French Caroline Slama; Ferri, GiulianoThis French edition quite exactly replicates its 2013 original by Usborne. The place of printing has changed from China to the United Arab Emirates. Otherwise, only the change of language seems to separate the two books, bought almost exactly ten years apart. As I wrote there, this is a squat edition, 6" x 7¾" with puffy covers. Its 272 pages are divided into eight categories, with three to six stories in each group. The categories are Pride, Trickery, Greed, Quarrels, Friendship, Cunning, Retorts, and Comeuppance. The story versions are good and filled out nicely with picturesque details. All but TH are well thought through. Davidson has the hare deliberately nap, planning on making the race competitive when the turtle catches up near the end. The illustrations are charming and colorful. FC on 14 is a good example. The book is physically heavyItem Fables de la Fontaine(Maison Alfred Mame et Fils, 1931) Jean de La Fontaine; R. de la NézièreThis is our fifth Nézière version of La Fontaine and one of the most interesting. Here is the history as I believe we can reconstruct it. Mame published a fine Nézière edition in 1926. It was slightly larger than this present edition, which is almost 8" x 11". It contained 60 fables on its 159 pages. It combined 16 strong full-page colored illustrations with two smaller black-and-white illustrations for every fable except one, MM. The match between the colored and black-and-white illustrations was particularly good. Front and back covers also had full-page illustrations of arches with the poet on stage on the front cover and anthropomorphized animal characters in the foreground; on the back cover, another set of anthropomorphized animal characters was in the foreground. I praised this book for its extravagant imagination. This edition was apparently exactly reprinted in 1930 in our second copy. Our third copy is an inexpensive Dutch paperback from 1979, but it coincides with the present book in presenting internally only black-and-white versions of Nézière's original illustrations. It presents only 35 fables and eliminates entirely the full-page illustrations. The fourth book is a 2001 Everyman's Library edition that reproduces both the smaller black-and-white illustrations of 1926 and the 16 full-page colored illustrations. Now I have found this 1931 edition, whose 160 pages render the full-page illustrations in black-and-white and are selective in the smaller illustrations that are included. There are significant stretches of fables toward the end with no illustration at all. Might this version be a cheaper post-stock-market-crash version? Pinterest shows many copies of the colored 1926 version but none of this 1931 version. As I have mentioned a propos of the other versions, one of Nézière's gifts is the inclusion of contemporary technology, from bicycle pumps to biplanes.Item Fables de La Fontaine(Librairie Ancienne et Moderne, 1827) Jean de La FontaineThis thick little volume (4" x 2½" x 1½" thick) has to be one of the most compact volumes in the collection. To my surprise, it is really an "Oeuvres de La Fontaine," and I wonder if a title-page to that effect might have been lost at the book's beginning. It is there before the other three volumes bound together here. The book thus contains not only all twelve books of fables in two stated volumes separately paginated (181 and 222 pages, respectively) but also two volumes of the Contes (152 and 184 pages, respectively). There is a T of C at the beginning of each of the four volumes. No illustrations.Item Fables de La Fontaine en Vers Provençaux(Alexandre Gueidon, 1872) Marius Bourrelly, translator, Jean de La FontaineHere is a lucky find in fragile condition. Inside this volume covering the first six books is a publisher's promise of a second volume. At its end, after a T of C, there is a list of subscribers. I tried the Provençal. It is far enough from the French for me to find it difficult. This volume includes a photograph of Bourrelly. I am grateful that Biblio routinely chooses several bookdealers who offer a sizeable month-long discount.Item Fables de La Fontaine: Édition Illustrée(Librairie Garnier Frères, 1898) Jean de La Fontaine; avec des notes et précédée de la vie de l'auteur par Auger; de 250 dessins par J.-J. GrandvilleThe chief claim of this 4½" x 7" edition of La Fontaine with Grandville's illustrations is the brilliant gold-embossed red cover of the wolf and fox pleading before the monkey. Otherwise it is another reproduction sixty years later of Grandville's lovely work. 478 pages. T of C at the end.Item Fables de Lafontaine: Imagerie d'Épinal(Pellerin & Companie, 1850) ÉpinalWe have a copy of very similar pamphlet, but several things are different. Might it be that this new copy is a yet more original version? This cover includes red fill just inside the narrow frame around the illustration. It lacks the "6me Série" on the top. Though it is hard to make out, it has a different label at the bottom of the front cover. The obscuring factor is a dealer's seal from P. Rolandi in London. The back cover removes the "Pellerin & Cie-Imps-Edits" at the bottom and again fills this space with red. The empty space at the center of the back cover it includes a rather long "En Vente" advertisement mentioning four La Fontaine numbers and other publications. Internally this copy has a "Fables de La Fontaine" at the top of the first page and many other pages, which is lacking on the first page of the other copy. The typesetting of the first page is also different. The colored illustrations are brighter than in the other copy. The cape of the wolf who has become a shepherd has stripes that were not differentially colored in the other version. The fox visiting the sick lion has exchanged the colors of the two parts of his lower covering. The color scheme of the leggings of the left-hand man in OR has changed. If I were looking for evidence that these beautiful illustrations are hand-colored, I guess I just received it! The seven illustrations here include "Les Deux Mulets," OF, TH, "Le Corbeau Voulant Imiter l'Aigle," and the three mentioned. There is a lovely redoing of "Le Corbeau Voulant Imiter l'Aigle" on the front cover. This pamphlet, like the other, adds one pictureless fable before (DLS) and one after (BF) the seven illustrated fables. 7¼" x 10". This copy cost less than 10% of the other copy!Item Fables for Wisdom Seekers Young and Old(First Edition Design Publishing, 2017) Meyers, Barbara A.; O'Dwyer, Susan AdeleMeyers is a therapist. She loved stories as a child. "Now as a therapist, I listen to and hold the emotional space for others' stories." The book "is a direct outgrowth of my work over the years and is written for parents, grandparents, teachers, counselors, and other adults who care about and love children and want to assist them on their journey to wholeness." Fables, she writes, "teach us about our own humanness" (all from the Preface, i-ii). The fourteen stories here are each six to eight pages long, with one full-page colored illustration by O'Dwyer. Each story is followed by about three pages of "talking points." The first story tells of Geri the Giraffe who gets lost and listens to bad advice from Snake. Turtle at last counsels Geri to listen to her own powers as giraffe. When she does that, Geri arrives back in her own territory at her own herd. In the second story, Clara the Caterpillar wants to be rid of the "unsightly" yellow spots on her green body. Nothing helps her to get rid of the spots. She meets Sam the Spider, who is tired of being all black. He has a method for getting more colors: he stands where a piece of glass refracts a rainbow of colors, perhaps onto him. He gets hotter and hotter in these focused rays until he goes up in flames. Marvin the Mole shows up, asks what happens, and laments. He has seen the beautiful blue on the underside of Sam, which Sam of course could not see. Clara reconsiders that maybe she should be looking for her gifts rather than what she is missing. 8½" square.Item Fables of the Chokosi(Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, 1970) Kashim Chokosi and recorded by Alfred KrassThis is a 28-page pamphlet about 6" x 8¼". It offers fourteen stories generally of the "pourquoi" sort: "Why Mice Live Inside Houses"; "Why the Monkey's Neck Is So Short"; "Why People Keep Dogs." Perhaps the closest to an Aesopic fable is "Cleverness Is Stronger Than Force" (23). People are on their way to help elephant with his new farm. Rabbit tricks them on their way into helping him with his farm. A surprise in this story is that God delivers the moral at the end. "Use your head. Do not threaten people with force." I believe that this is our first publication from Ghana.Item Famous Animal Fables(Teacher Created Materials, 2020) Huey-Gatewood, Carol; VariousThis 7" x 9" pamphlet offers seven fables, illustrated by various artists. The cover shows a human and several monkeys waving to several other monkeys suspended from vines. The first fable is new to me: the king of all the birds, a swan, has a daughter who wants to marry the most beautiful bird. She chooses the peacock, but then he shows off in so shameful a manner that he is rejected and shunned. Pride comes before a fall. In the second, a greedy fox finds a hunter's lunch in a tree and, famished and skinny, climbs in. After eating lots of the hunter's food, he cannot get out. Luckily, snow confuses the hunter and the fox is not found out. He emerges wiser. In the third story, four different animals claim that a tree is theirs but soon learn to share the tree: elephant, monkey, hare, and partridge. The fourth fable is CP. The fifth fable substitutes a horse for the usual donkey who seems to learn successful behavior from a pet dog. The sixth story is the most surprising to me. A hatmaker falls asleep and finds that monkeys have stolen his hats. After all sorts of attempts, he angrily throws his own hat to the ground, and all the monkeys do the same. Success! He gets his hats back. His grandson undergoes the same adventure and throws his hat to the ground without the same effect among the monkeys. "You are not the only one with a grandfather who tells stories!" The last story is the traditional "Lion and Rabbit" from Panchatantra. This is a lively recent book!Item The Four Kings of the Forest: A Fable(The Press in Tuscany Alley, 1973) Joyce Lancaster Wilson; Joyce Lancaster WilsonAlthough named a fable by the author/illustrator, this 20-page story reaches beyond the usual limits of a fable. It tells the story of four kings -- lion, elephant, gorilla, and snake -- who learn from a boy and make him a fifth king. Ingres mold-made paper with color lineoleum block prints. As Powell's description says, "The colors used and the illustrations are charming." Bound by green thread.Item Fox Fables (Farsi & English)(Mantra Lingua Ltd, 2006) Dawn Casey/Farsi Anwar Soltani; JagoThis is a large, handsome, landscape-formatted book of 32 pages presenting two fables bilingually. It belongs to a series, of which I now have seventeen. The series presents the two fables of this book by pairing English with a number of different languages, one for each book. This used copy is enclosed in a plastic dust-jacket. FC is visually splendid! The size of the book allows Jago to create impressive illustrations like that of the crane unable to slurp up soup as well as three detailed specific views of her attempts. Casey has the crane thank the fox for his kindness politely and add: "Please let me repay you -- come to dinner at my house." The page after the story lists activities: writing, art, "maths," storytelling, and music. The second story here is "King of the Forest," and it is labelled a Chinese fable. Tiger comes upon fox and frightens him. In desperation, fox claims that he is king of the forest. Tiger roars with laughter. Fox answers that he will show tiger. "This I've got to see," tiger says. Fox gets tiger to walk behind him. Of course, every animal upon whom these two come runs away in respect. Tiger is fooled and pays his respects to the king of the forest. Fox bids him be gone and then, on the way home, has a good laugh over the whole ploy. This story is also strongly illustrated. My versions now include Arabic, Italian, Bengali, Urdu, Swahili, French, Polish, Arabic, Russian, Tamil, Mandarin, Croatian, Farsi, and Somali.