The 'Possum That Didn't

London: John Murray. Fair. 1951. 1st U.K. edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . (paper-covered boards; no dust jacket) [heavily worn at spine, with significant deterioration of spine covering (although the entire title and author's name are still present), although the binding itself is intact; also worn and bumped at corners and edges, offsetting to endpapers, a few scrunched bottom page corners, gift inscription (non-authorial) on ffep]. (line drawings) The second of Tashlin's social parables in fuzzy-animal guise -- the first was the renowned "The Bear That Wasn't" (1946) -- which are often referred to condescendingly as "children's books." Unlike "Bear," which took place in an almost abstract factory, this one plunges its cute little protagonist into the inferno of modern American urban life, a setting which allows Tashlin's satiric sensibilities full reign, resulting in a visual riot of densely detailed tableaux. The story concerns a perfectly contented little 'possum who's discovered in the woods by a quartet of do-gooders; because he's hanging upside down from a tree branch (as 'possums will), these busybodies mistake his contented smile for a frown -- so they promptly hustle him off to the city, where they engage in ever more ridiculous efforts to cheer him up. The hustle and bustle of city life makes him miserable, of course, and turns his smile into a frown -- but since it's upside-down, the people foolishly believe they've succeeded in making him smile! While they wallow in accolades for their "kindness," the poor little creature is left to make his own way back to the forest, and to his former state of bucolic bliss. At the time this book was published, Tashlin had already succeeded in transitioning from animation into screenwriting, and was poised to make the leap to feature film directing. .