THE SNOWY DAY by Keats, Ezra Jack - 1962

New York: The Viking Press, 1962. First edition. First issue dust jacket. Near fine in like jacket.. First printing of this groundbreaking work, the first Caldecott award-winner celebrating a Black protagonist as the hero of the story, enjoying a beautiful winter day. After a career illustrating other people's books, Keats became an author as well in SNOWY DAY, which won him the Caldecott and changed his life. In this book Keats found his artistic voice, where his experimentation with collages and dramatic colors were able to sing in gorgeous multicolor pictorial spreads.

Keats, himself white, depicted little Peter as a stand-in for every child in a joyful children's book about everyday life, subversive in its suggestion that representation should not be subversive at all. As a 2016 picture book about the making of SNOWY DAY says: "When Snow spreads her sheet, we all glisten" (A POEM FOR PETER). 8'' x 9''. Original light blue cloth, white and red-stamped pictorial front board, white-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($3.00) color pictorial dust jacket with design by Keats. Color snowflake-patterned endpapers. 32 pages. Color illustrations by Keats on nearly every page. Touch of toning to cloth extremities. A few spots of of tape and residue on verso of jacket, else extremely bright with only the lightest edgewear and a couple nicks at the head of the spine. Extremely scarce in this condition.