MEI LI

Handforth, Thomas

Published by Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc, New York, 1938

About this Item

Signed first edition of this early Caldecott winner, the story of a little Chinese girl who is determined to show that she belongs at the New Year Fair this copy owned by a librarian on the Caldecott Award Selection Committee. Published in the midst of growing American sympathies for the Chinese as the Japanese invaded, MEI LI draws on Thomas Handforth's own experiences living in China on a Guggenheim fellowship. Handforth taught himself lithography in order to have more control over the artistic process involved, which comes through beautifully in his illustrations of Mei Li as she adventures through the New Year Fair. MEI LI earned the second Caldecott Medal ever awarded in 1939; this book also contains the ownership signature of Marian Young, a prominent librarian based in Detroit and member of the Caldecott Award Selection Committee, of which she would later become Chairman. A terrific association. 12'' x 9''. Original orangle cloth binding with gilt lettering. Original unclipped ($2.00) color pictorial dust jacket. Yellow and orange cartographic endpapers, showing the route from MEI LI's home to the city. Illustrated in black and white. [26] leaves. Signed by Handforth to half-title page, with Caldecott Medal bookplate pasted in above. Jacket with chips to spine ends, several closed tears and attendant tape repairs to verso. Book with a bit of soil to edges, a few leaves with faint fingersoil. Firm. Very good plus in very good jacket.

Seller Inventory # 38856

Bibliographic Details

• Title: MEI LI
• Publisher: Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 1938
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First printing.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Newbery, Caldecott, and Coretta Scott King Awards
  • Picture Books