Joel Spends His Money

New York: Abelard-Schuman. Near Fine in Good dj. (c.1954). First Edition. Hardcover. [minimal wear to book; the jacket has a long ragged tear at the top of the spine (about 3.5", but then turning diagonally and continuing another 3" into the front panel), with resultant minor paper loss; additionally, the rear flapfold is split about halfway up from the bottom edge, and there are a couple of other short edge-tears and light soiling]. (color illustrations) The second in this author-illustrator's "Joel" series (following "Joel Gets a Haircut"), this book presents "a painless first lesson in the value of money for the youngest set," as it chronicles six-year-old Joel learning the fundamentals of money management in the course of wrangling his newly-acquired allowance. There was one more book yet to come in the series, "Joel Gets a Dog," published in 1958. In the art world, the author (1908-1973) was known as a "modern primitivist" painter; in addition to her work as a book illustrator, she also exhibited her paintings at such venues as the Whitney Biennial, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. .