1920 Rare Book - Heidi by Johanna Spyri illustreated by Lizzie Lawson
An especially attractive early Golden Books edition of Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, complete with eight charming full-page color illustrations attributable to Lizzie Lawson and retaining its lovely original pictorial binding.
Author: Johanna Spyri. Illustrated by Lizzie Lawson (plates signed “L.L.”).
Title: Heidi.
Publisher: Philadelphia: David McKay, [circa 1920].
Edition: Early Golden Books Illustrated Edition; apparently an early McKay issue with this series of Lizzie Lawson illustrations. First thus.
Language: English.
Pages: 356 pages.
Size: 8 x 5.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s green cloth binding with gilt titles to spine and large color pictorial paper onlay to front board (light rubbing and age-related wear to the pictorial onlay and extremities, hinges fine and binding firm, as shown). Decorative illustrated endpapers. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (clean, bright and tight, with occasional light age toning and minor spotting, as shown). Neat previous owner’s inscription dated 1922 on the front endpaper.
Illustrations: Complete with all eight beautiful full-page color plates, including the frontispiece, signed “L.L.” and attributable to Lizzie Lawson. All plates present and in very good condition.
Estimate: USD 150–175.
The book:
A particularly charming early illustrated edition of Heidi, issued by David McKay as part of its Golden Books series around 1920. The eight full-page color plates are especially appealing, with soft watercolor tones, expressive figures and idyllic Alpine landscapes perfectly suited to Spyri’s story. The attractive mounted illustration on the front board repeats the frontispiece, while the decorative endpapers give the volume the character of an early twentieth-century gift book.
Originally published in German in 1880–1881, Heidi follows the orphaned young girl sent to live with her reclusive grandfather high in the Swiss Alps. Her friendship with Peter, her difficult period in Frankfurt, her relationship with Clara and her eventual return to the mountains created one of the most enduring narratives in children’s literature, celebrating childhood, friendship, kindness and the restorative power of nature.
The author:
Johanna Spyri (1827–1901) was a Swiss writer best remembered for Heidi, a work deeply informed by the Alpine landscapes and rural communities she knew from childhood. Its simplicity, emotional warmth and vivid sense of place helped make it one of the most widely translated and enduring works of Swiss literature.
Spyri wrote numerous stories for young readers, often exploring childhood, family, illness, nature and moral development. None achieved the international reach of Heidi, whose heroine has remained a beloved literary figure for well over a century.
The illustrator:
Lizzie Lawson was a British illustrator particularly associated with children’s books around the turn of the twentieth century. Her illustrations for Heidi were already appearing in English-language editions by the early 1900s and are characterized by their gentle palette, naturalistic figures and warmly sentimental treatment of childhood. The eight plates in this McKay edition bear the initials “L.L.”, consistent with Lawson’s authorship.