The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Marionette by C. Collodi, Illustrated by Frederick Richardson, First Edition Thus, 1927

Collodi, Carlo. The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Marionette. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1927. Illustrated by Frederick Richardson. First edition thus. Octavo. In the publisher's original green cloth boards, stamped with gilt, illustrated cover label. With numerous full and half page illustrations throughout. New archival slipcase.

Presented is a charming edition of Carlo Collodi’s children’s tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of the Marionette. This book was published in Philadelphia by The John C. Winston Company, in 1927. This is the first edition to be illustrated by Frederick Richardson. It features the original illustrated endpapers, twenty color plates, and twenty five black and white illustrations throughout the book. It is presented here in its original green cloth boards, stamped in gilt, with a beautiful illustrated cover label of Pinocchio.

Collodi’s La Storia di un Burattino (trans: The Story of a Puppet) first appeared in serial form in the Italian weekly publication for children, Giornale per i bambini. The first installment was published on July 7, 1881 and continued for nearly four months and 15 chapters. Following the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocchio, the original series was written as an educational tale of warning to Italian children, stressing the importance of morality, responsibility, and obedience to one’s parents and authority. In the original, serialized version, the flawed and irresponsible Pinocchio is penalized and hanged for his numerous poor decisions and faults of character at the end of Chapter 15. 

At the request of his editor and by the demand of his many readers, Collodi resumed his serialized story in February of 1882. In these later chapters, Chapters 16–36, the Fairy with Turquoise Hair rescues and revives Pinocchio and eventually transforms him into a real boy. Pinocchio acquires a deeper understanding of himself and his moral responsibilities, making the story more palatable for children. In February 1883, the story was published in Italy as a single book, illustrated by Enrico Mazzanti. It was a huge publishing success. 

The Adventures of Pinocchio is the world's third most translated book, after the Bible and The Little Prince. Pinocchio was first translated into English by Mary Alice Murray in 1892, whose translation was added to the widely circulated Everyman's Library in 1911. The first US edition was published in 1901, translated and illustrated by Walter S. Cramp and Charles Copeland. Other celebrated English translations include the 1926 translation by Carol Della Chiesa and the later 1986 bilingual edition by Nicolas Perella. 

Frederick Richardson (1862-1937) was an American illustrator and artist. Born in Chicago, Richardson studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and at the Académie Julian in Paris. He also taught at the Chicago Art Institute for seven years. Richardson worked as a newspaper illustrator for the Chicago Daily News for more than ten years, from 1892 until his move to New York City in 1903.

In New York, Richardson pursued book illustration. His first book was L. Frank Baum's Queen Zixi of Ix, published serially in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1904 and 1905, and in full book form in 1906. His intricately detailed, Art Nouveau-styled illustration projects graced the book pages of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale retellings and classic children’s books like Aesop's Fables, Mother Goose, Pinocchio, and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. He illustrated two volumes in the series of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. He also worked closely with Georgene Faulkner to illustrate her Little Peachling and Other Tales of Old Japan, as well as The White Elephant and Other Tales from Old India, using Japanese woodblocks and traditional Indian ink drawings as inspiration for those titles. For John Heming Fry's The Revolt Against Beauty, Richardson supplied pictures inspired by Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh and characters from newspaper comic strips. 

CONDITION: 

8vo. Original green cloth boards, with gilt titles to front and spine. Boards feature a color pictorial paste-down to front cover. Fading to gilt and light wear and bumping to boards. New linings and archival touch-ups to boards. Original light green endpapers with dark green drawings by Richardson. Illustrated by Richardson with 20 color plates and 25 black and white drawings within text.  Title page printed in blue and red. Some foxing on the first few pages, otherwise clean. 262 pp. Presented with a new archival green slipcase, to match.  

Book Dimensions: 9 3/8" H x 7 1/4" W x 1 1/8" D.
Slipcase Dimensions: 9 3/4" H x 7 3/8" W x 2" D.

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.