THE KNAVE OF HEARTS. Pictures by Maxfield Parrish

1935. Racine, Wisconsin: Artists and Writers Guild, n.d. [ca 1935]. Original color-pictorial spiral-bound flexible card covers.

First Artists & Writers edition (spiral-bound) of what many consider to be Maxfield Parrish's ultimate achievement in book form. The oversize (12" x 10") plates, in luminous color, are magnificent. This A&W edition is often described as having been published in 1925, because the book's only date, is where it reads "Copyright 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons." However, this Artists and Writers edition was published a whole decade later -- in 1935-1936, and in Poughkeepsie not in Racine. The original (first) edition was indeed published by Scribner in 1925 -- a regular hardbound book. Western Printing Company of Racine Wisconsin had acquired Whitman Publishing in 1916, to issue inexpensive juvenile books; in the early 1930s, Western also acquired Artists and Writers Guild of Poughkeepsie, New York -- not a "guild" at all, but a printer then specializing in playing cards and greeting cards. 1935-1936 was the first year of children's book production for Artists and Writers Guild in Poughkeepsie, and their list for that first year consisted of 28 titles, including this one -- available both spiral-bound (as here) or with a regular card-cover binding. This copy is in very good-plus condition (lower fore-corner of the front cover creased, small scuff on the right-hand baker's sleeve).