1922 Rare Book - Grimm’s Fairy Stories Illustrated by John B. Gruelle R. E. Owen

An attractive 1922 American edition of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales, illustrated throughout by R. Emmett Owen and retaining both full-page color plates by John B. Gruelle, in its striking original red pictorial cloth.

Author: Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.
Title: Grimm’s Fairy Stories.
Publisher: New York: Cupples & Leon Company, 1922.
Edition: 1922 illustrated edition. First thus.
Language: English.
Pages: iv, 178 pages.
Size: 9.5 x 8 inches.
Binding: Very good original red publisher’s cloth, with gilt lettering and decoration to the front board and spine and a large mounted color illustration to the front cover. Light rubbing and minor wear consistent with age, while the gilt and pictorial onlay remain bright and attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content, clean and well preserved, with only light age toning and occasional minor marks. Contains twenty-five Grimm fairy tales, including Hansel and Grethel, Little Snow-White, Cinderella, Briar Rose, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog Prince, The Valiant Little Tailor and The Goose-Girl.
Illustrations: Complete with two full-page color illustrations by John B. Gruelle, including Hansel and Grethel and The Valiant Little Tailor, together with numerous pen-and-ink illustrations throughout by R. Emmett Owen.

Estimate: $175–200 USD.

The book:
This substantial 1922 collection presents twenty-five of the Brothers Grimm’s best-known and most enduring fairy tales, ranging from Hansel and Grethel and Cinderella to Rapunzel, Briar Rose and Rumpelstiltskin. The generous format gives particular prominence to the illustrations, with R. Emmett Owen’s lively pen-and-ink drawings integrated throughout the text and two richly colored full-page plates by John B. Gruelle.

The volume is especially appealing in its original red cloth binding, with gilt decoration and a large color pictorial onlay to the front board. Gruelle’s softer, storybook color work contrasts effectively with Owen’s energetic black-and-white drawings, making this an attractive example of American illustrated children’s publishing from the early 1920s.

The authors:
Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), collectively known as the Brothers Grimm, were German scholars, linguists and folklorists whose collections of traditional stories became among the most influential works in children’s literature. Their Kinder- und Hausmärchen, first published in 1812, preserved stories drawn from oral tradition and earlier literary sources at a time of growing interest in German language, folklore and national culture.

Over successive editions, the Grimms revised and expanded the collection, and tales such as Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and The Frog Prince became part of the shared imaginative vocabulary of Western literature. Their influence extends far beyond children’s books into folklore studies, illustration, theatre, film and popular culture.