1950 Rare Pop-Up Edition - RUDOLPH The Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May, Illustrated by Marion Guild.
(description)
Author: Robert L. May, Illustrated by Marion Guild.
Title: RUDOLPH The Red-Nosed Reindeer. The Complete Story with Pop-up Action Pictures.
Publisher: London, Published by Publicity Products Ltd., no date (1950). First UK Pop-up Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: oblong 10.5 " X 8.5 ".
Pages: 20 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original pictorial wrappers (spiral spine) (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. Rare in such a nice condition!
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean - as shown, all Pop-up Action Pictures in very good condition - as shown, very small chip to the inner margin of one page without affecting the text nor the illustration - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with all wonderful Pop-up Action Pictures by Marion Guild in very good condition!
The book: Attractive and very good Pop-up Edition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer -- a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. Though he initially receives ridicule for his nose as a fawn, the brightness of his nose is so powerful that it illuminates the team's path through harsh winter weather. Ronald D. Lankford, Jr., described Rudolph's story as "the fantasy story made to order for American children: each child has the need to express and receive approval for his or her individuality and/or special qualities. Rudolph's story embodies the American Dream for the child, written large because of the cultural significance of Christmas."
The illustrator: MARION "POOH" B. GUILD - (1917-May 17, 2013). Marion was a native Vermonter, born in Essex Junction in 1917, the fourth of five children. She graduated from Essex Junction High School in 1934, where she loved all sports, particularly basketball. After high school, she majored in art at UVM, and during the Depression found employment with the WPA Federal Art Project in Burlington. In the late 1930's, Guild worked as a plate-maker and stripper at the Burlington Free Press Printing Co., and freelanced as a graphic artist. During W.W.II, she served as a draftsman in a defense plant in Westfield, Mass., hoping to join the Red Cross or other WAAC's, but failed to qualify due to chronic asthma. At the war's end, she joined the art department at General Offset Printing Co. in Springfield, Mass. The company was associated with Maxton Publishing Co. in NYC, which specialized in children's books. Guild illustrated several of their books as the staff illustrator, including "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer" and "Rudolph Shines Again."
The author: Robert L. May (July 27, 1905 – August 11, 1976) was the creator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Early in 1939, May's boss at Montgomery Ward asked him to write a "cheery children's book" for Christmas shoppers, suggesting "it should be an animal story, with a character like Ferdinand the Bull", which was then recently released as a short film by Walt Disney. Prior to that time, Montgomery Ward had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas, but it was decided that creating a book of its own would save money and be a nice goodwill gesture. This request came at a difficult time in May's life. Evelyn was dying of cancer and he was struggling to support his family and pay for her medical treatments on a salary of $5,000/year (equivalent to $97,404 in 2021). As May would later write, "I was heavily in debt at age 35, still grinding out catalog copy. Instead of writing the great American novel, as I'd always hoped. I was describing men's white shirts."
In writing the Christmas giveaway, May decided to make a reindeer the central character of the book because it was a Christmas animal. It had to be a sort of "ugly duckling" who had a lot of heart to make it with Santa. He "drew on memories of his own painfully shy childhood when creating his Rudolph story. He and his then four-year-old daughter Barbara, together with Montgomery Ward artist Denver Gillen, visited Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo one Saturday to get a better idea of what Rudolph might look like. Working at home and in his spare time at the office, May wrote the book in about 50 hours. As he finished drafting each part, he would read it to Barbara. "She was my guinea pig" and "I ran the words on her for size."[20][21] When Evelyn then died July 28, 1939, May's boss offered to relieve him of the project and have someone else finish it, but May declined and finished the poem in late August. On the day of its completion, "I called Barbara and her grandparents into the living room and read it to them. In their eyes I could see that the story accomplished what I had hoped."
This softcover Rudolph poem booklet was first distributed by Montgomery Ward during the 1939 holiday season. Shoppers loved it and 2.4 million copies were distributed. Wartime restrictions on paper use prevented a re-issue until 1946. In that year, Montgomery Ward gave away another 3.6 million softcover copies to its shoppers.