(United States / Children's Literature / Novelty Books) NEWELL, Peter. THE ROCKET BOOK.
New York: Harper & Brothers, [1912], (1912). FIRST EDITION, first printing, with "Published October, 1912" on the title-page verso. 8vo - 8-7/8" x 7-1/4". [48] pp. Bound in original blue cloth-covered boards with a large color pictorial paste-label applied to the front cover. Plain endpapers. Complete with the original publisher's pictorial paper dust jacket. Housed with an original, laid-in autograph letter signed by Peter Newell dated August 8, 1901, inviting a correspondent to his home, complete with hand-drawn landmark instructions and map. Newell’s signature mechanical die-cut design utilizes a single punched hole running progressively through the leaves to mimic the trajectory of a rocket.
The physical condition of the item is graded FINE (utilizing the standard antiquarian book grading scale for works on paper), preserved in a VERY GOOD - (utilizing the same grading scale) dust jacket. The original blue cloth is remarkably clean and tight with only minute hints of rubbing at the corners. The exceptionally rare original dust jacket exhibits age-toning to the front panel and spine, mild soiling, light edge fraying, a few small abrasions on the back panel, and a small, neat professional repair to a 7/16" x 7/16" hole on the front panel. Internally, the leaves are crisp and fine, and the laid-in handwritten letter is in excellent condition.
Peter Newell and Early Twentieth-Century Die-Cut Toy Book Design
Following his landmark novelty designs in The Hole Book (1908) and The Slant Book (1910), Peter Newell’s The Rocket Book stands as a masterpiece of early interactive children’s literature. The humorous narrative, written in sequential verse on the versos, tracks the chaotic ascent of a rocket ignited in the basement by the janitor's mischievous son, Fritz. As the projectile bursts through twenty floors of the apartment building, a physical die-cut oval hole pierces each page, seamlessly integrating the book's physical construction with Newell's brilliant color illustrations on the rectos. Newell’s unique comedic sensibility, which art historians recognize as a key pioneer of twentieth-century visual absurdism, is fully realized here as Fritz's prank unleashes a chain reaction of domestic mayhem.
Series Bibliography, Census, and Market Scarcity
Due to their highly interactive play-based formats, novelty toy books of this era were typically handled to destruction by young readers. Consequently, specimens that survive in a collector's grade of preservation are incredibly scarce, and copies retaining the fragile publisher's paper dust wrapper are of the utmost rarity. While worn or unsleeved copies of the book can be encountered in commerce, the survival of the fragile paper jacket is an exceptional anomaly. The presence of this beautifully preserved jacket, combined with the fine condition of the volume and a unique, laid-in original signed handwritten letter with hand-drawn map from Newell, establishes this copy as a singular, premier example of early twentieth-century American toy and movable book design.
THIS EXCEPTIONAL, JACKET-COMPLETE FIRST EDITION COPY OF THE ROCKET BOOK, ACCOMPANIED BY AN ORIGINAL SIGNED HANDWRITTEN LETTER WITH HAND-DRAWN MAP, REPRESENTS A CRITICAL ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, MOVABLE AND NOVELTY BOOKS, OR GOLDEN AGE AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION.
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