Uncle Remus

New York: Appleton, 1881. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. 1st edition, 1st printing, 1st binding (right ads), as per B.A.L 7100. His first book. Blue-gray cloth (6 colors with no priority), 3 miniscule specks to spine else fine (superlative). Blue-gray seems the scarcest color, and it is prone to fading and soiling, so it also seems the hardest to get in fine condition. Old half morocco case. The first classic American beast fable, teeming with tricks and troublemaking, repeatedly wise, and replete with keen observations on human frailties that seldom contradict experience. The Tar Baby tale says that when it is not necessary to be offended, it is necessary to not be offended, The Briar Patch tale says that if fools are arrogant and ornery enough, they will do what you tell them not to do. And there are 32 other stories, along with some songs and proverbs, that take turns reminding the reader that cunning often outwits itself, that some days you're the puddle and some days you're the mop, that moral victories don't count, that if it were not for the last minute nothing would get done, and that the only normal folks are the ones we do not know very well. Undeterred by all that, the understandably irritated reject indulging Uncle Remus as folklore of its time, primarily, but not entirely, because the depiction of its narrator stereotypes the formerly enslaved.