Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep [Signed, Lettered]

New York: Viking, 1944. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. This is one of an unspecified number of lettered copies of this book, signed by Bemelmans, and housed in an illustrated slipcase. There were 400 numbered copies and 100 copies for private distribution denoted by Roman numerals. The limited edition also includes five full-color plates (including the list of illustrations and one double-page scene), that were not included in the trade edition.

The journalist Drew Pearson in his Washington Merry-Go-Round column described this book better than I ever could: "Only a few writers, competent to the extent that they need not even think about technique, can write a novel without a plot, idea or message. In Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Bemelmans establishes himself as one of those elite novelist-raconteurs... This is Bemelmans' first novel, or at any rate the first of his books that he or his publishers have decided to call a novel, but you will not find it unfamiliar. Here again is the world of chartered yachts, de luxe hotels, expensive women, vintage wines, a world in which the limitations of time and space are all but overcome by money. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a fantasy about fantastic people."

Bemelmans was a native of a part of French-speaking Austria that is now in Italy; English was his third language, after French and German. He is best known today for the Madeline picture book series, but he was a talented writer and illustrator of books for adults too.

299 pages. First edition (first printing). A near fine copy in a special cloth binding with an illustrated paper label on the front board. The book is accompanied by a slipcase that has minor wear at the corners. This is copy lettered "J", a designation not mentioned on the colophon.