The Canterville Ghost

Natick, MA: Picture Book Studio/Neugebauer Press, 1986. Illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde’s 1887 ghost story, the first of his stories to be published. In this comic tale, a historic English country house ghost is demoralized by the arrival of an unspookable American family: “on one occasion, while dressed for the part of ‘Black Isaac, or the Huntsman of Hogley Woods,’ he met with a severe fall, through treading on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed from the entrance of the Tapestry Chamber to the top of the oak staircase.” In the end, through the intercession of the family’s brave young daughter, the exhausted ghost is finally laid to rest. In 1990, illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger won the Hans Christian Andersen medal in recognition of her “lasting contribution to children's literature.” A near-fine copy. Single volume, measuring 11.5 x 8.25 inches: [36]. Original glossy color pictorial boards, black linen spine, pale green coated endpapers, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Color illustrations throughout text. Light edgewear to jacket, with several short closed tears.