George Cruikshank—Brothers Grimm | German Popular Stories, London, 1823-26, blue morocco gilt by Bedford

George Cruikshank (illustrator)—Brothers Grimm

German popular stories, translated from the Kinder und Haus Märchen, collected by M.M. Grimm from Oral Tradition. London: C. Baldwyn, 1823; James Robins & Co., 1826

FIRST EDITION (second story titled "The Travelling Musicians"), second issue (with umlaut over the "a" in the word "Märchen"), 12mo (191 x 110mm.), with 20 plates and engraved titles by George Cruikshank printed in brown (volume 1) and black (volume 2), half-titles in each volume, publisher's advertisements at end of each volume (with notice reading "On the First of November..." at end of volume 1), original wrappers for volume 1 bound in at end, blue morocco gilt by F. Bedford, spines with raised bands in six gilt compartments, top edges gilt, others uncut, maroon endpapers, advertisement leaf in volume 2 professionally repaired at lower margin, occasional very slight spotting and offsetting, good overall

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, translated by Edgar Taylor, a prosperous lawyer and writer. Together with his friend, David Jardine, a native German speaker, he selected a number of the collection of over 150 stories which had been first published in by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm between 1812 and 1815. Cruikshank, who had just begun to focus on illustrations after several years as a caricaturist, contributed the etchings which make this the first illustrated version of Grimm's "household tales", and subsequently set the pattern for future appearances of fairy tales. The book was an immediate success and did much to make such stories acceptable as reading material for children, thanks in part to Taylor's sensitive omission and alterations to certain more gruesome episodes in the original German.

LITERATURE

Cohn (1924) 369