The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse [Townmouse]

1-4 Bedford Court, Bedford Street, London : Frederick Warne & Co., Limited , 1918. Early printing; unstated. Only statement at copyright page is: "Copyright 1918 by Frederick Warne & Co." No other dates, indications. Code 63.749 at dj front flap and at final colophon page with printer detail. Light green smooth with moderate sheen pictorial boards, sharp dark green impressed cover and spine titles, light shelf wear, toning. Front cover feature features Beatrix Potter illustration plate of Johnny town-mouse briefcase in hand, with blind-stamped borders. Heavy stock coated pages, near fine. Collage of characters color illustrated endpapers at front and back. Includes vintage custom bookplate adjacent dedication page: "From Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's House at Sawrey." Dedication at page adjacent plate: "To The Aesop in the Shadows." In 1905 Potter bought Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey, a village in the Lake District, in the county of Cumbria (then Lancashire).Fine string-bind, square; endpapers intact. Rare original pictorial dust wraper in off-white, moderate edge wear, rub; unclipped 3/6 NET, protected in new clear sleeve. Front panel matches boards in design with title and illustration of Johnny Town-Mouse. Front and back flaps feature adverts for prints of Potters imagery; Potter titles available in French, Welsh, Spanish, and German. Back panel features list of Peter Rabbit titles. Near fine classic in same wrapper. Charming 4 1/4" x 5 3/4" design. Printed for the Publishers by Edmund Evans, Limited. Rose Place, Globe Road, London. 59 pages. Insured post. Do you ever feel that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence? Well, so did Johnny Town-Mouse and Timmy Willie. One was a townie and one was a country mouse, and when they end up in each other's worlds they soon discover they were much happier where they started! Presented here is the story of the differences between city and country living, a very Beatrix Potter retelling of Aesop's "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse." "Miss Potter need not worry about rivals. She has none," proclaimed The Bookman's review in 1918 (quoted in Linder, 244). Certainly this title carries all the hallmarks of Potter's talent: beautiful countryside, well-dressed animals, prose that is both efficient and evocative. It was also to be one of her final books for Warne, as she became more focused on the care and keeping of her Lake District farm. Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who is best known for her children's books featuring animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Born into a wealthy household, Potter was educated by governesses. She had numerous pets and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, which she closely observed and painted. Her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse is number 13 in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books. In her forties, she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943 and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers.. First Edition Thus. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good. 24mo - over 5" - 5¾" tall.