Pares Illustrator (3 results)

Illustrator inscribed Reprint: Hardback, blue bds., gold titles, 140 x 195 mm., 400g., 128 pp., illustrated with line drawings and dustwrapper by Bip Pares, decorative eps., inscribed and signed by the illustrator, Bip Pares, (respected Detective Fiction dustwrapper artist) on prelim., original pictorial dw., rubbing to crns. and edges, G+/VG copy.

Dust Jacket Condition: dj. First English edition of James Hilton's tale of the shy schoolmaster Mr. Chipping, who over the course of a long career becomes a legend at Brookfield, "a good school of the second rank." Deeply Victorian in sympathy, "Mr. Chips" rises to the challenge of the First World War, and survives into the 1930s, beloved by generations of boys: "In my mind you never grow up at all. Never." Originally issued as a supplement to The British Weekly in 1933, Goodbye, Mr. Chips was reprinted in The Atlantic in April 1934, followed by book publication in the United States in June and England in October; the nostalgic novel was a runaway bestseller during the Depression, inspiring the Oscar-winning 1939 Hollywood film starring Robert Donat. This first English edition is wonderfully illustrated by Ethel "Bip" Pares, one of England's leading Art Deco book designers. Accompanied by two typed letters written and signed by Hilton, during his stint as a Hollywood screenwriter, to prolific Chicago-based author and anthologist Marjorie Barrows (1892-1983), regarding reprint rights for his short story "Mr. Chips Meets a Star" in The Family Reader. This was likely Barrows's personal copy of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, as Hilton's letters were once secured (via paper clip and tape) to the opening pages. A very good copy, with signed "Mr. Chips" correspondence laid in. Single volume, measuring 7.5 x 5.5 inches: 127, [1]. Original royal blue cloth lettered in gilt, endpapers printed in blue with Latin quotations, original unclipped pictorial dust jacket printed in blue and black. Title page printed in blue and black; black-and-white illustrations throughout text. Traces of tape to boards, endpapers, and front flyleaf; jacket lightly soiled, tape repairs to verso, shallow chips to head of spine and rear panel. WITH: two typed letters to Marjorie Barrows signed by Hilton, the first dated 1946 and measuring 8.5 x 7 inches, the second dated 1948 and measuring 5.75 x 6.5 inches. Signed.

gouache on pencil on art-card, signed by the artist in white to border of image, 27 x 19 cm approx. a few spots and imperfections, very good condition. [With:] A copy of the first edition of the novel, published Hodder & Stoughton, 1948, very good condition, with a different Pares design to the dustjacket. Ethel 'Bip' Pares was a prolific illustrator and cartographer, the best of whose work in respect of the former is in the first rank of her period - much of her work was for Hodder, with whom she published her travel memoir 'Himalayan Honeymoon'. The unused design here differs radically from the published version (only the lettering is retained) - the latter focusing more on the Swedish-setting of the novel, with Nordic pines against a mountainous landscape, whereas her original version focuses on the Nazi-hunting aspect of this post-War thriller, replacing the eyes of the protagonist with Swastikas against the background of an inferno. It seems likely that the latter was considered somewhat provocative. The novel, per its copyright page, has a publication date of January 1948, so the artwork seems likely to have been completed in the latter half of the preceding year.