Æsop's Fables - Isaac Bashevis Singer intro, illus. Murray Tinkelman (1968 Doubleday BCE)

Based on the translation of George Fyler Townsend. Introduction by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Illustrated by Murray Tinkelman. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1968. Book Club Edition. Red boards stamped in gilt with fox-and-grape vignette to front and gilt spine titles; 214 pp. A handsome mid-century Doubleday edition pairing Townsend's classic 19th-century English translation of Aesop's Fables with an insightful new introduction by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, who praises the timeless clarity and moral wit of the ancient storyteller. Artist Murray Tinkelman's fine-line pen drawings, stylized yet whimsical, appear throughout, complementing more than 300 fables, including 'The Fox and the Grapes,' 'The Hare and the Tortoise,' and 'The Lion and the Mouse.' The edition revives the unabridged adult text, restoring the moral sharpness and rhythm of Townsend's original rendering. Condition: Very Good in Good dust jacket. Clean, bright boards with sharp gilt and sound binding. Jacket shows moderate edgewear with chips at spine crown and a short closed tear and crease to upper front, small loss at lower edge; light toning to flap folds. Interior crisp and unmarked, with mild age toning at margins. Edition details: Copyright © 1968 by Nelson Doubleday, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. Jacket design by Jackie Schuman. Book Club Edition issued the same year as the trade first. Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903-1991) was a Polish-born American writer who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature. Writing primarily in Yiddish, he became renowned for blending folklore, moral parable, and human psychology in works such as The Slave and Gimpel the Fool. Murray Tinkelman (1933-2016) was an award-winning American illustrator celebrated for his cross-hatched pen-and-ink style and contributions to classic literature, magazines, and the New York Times Book Review. His finely detailed line art and subtle humor made him one of the defining illustrators of the mid-20th century. …