The Flying Locomotive.
New York: Viking, [October], 1949.
Price: $250.00
About the item
Fourth Printing. 16 Illustrations in full color and 12 in black annd white by William Pène du Bois. 12mo. Original blue cloth, WITH ORIGINAL PICTORIAL DUST JACKET. Wear mostly to extremities, otherwise a Very Good copy in a very nice (with one closed tear) dust jacket.
Item #308646
William Pène Du Bois (1916-1993), author and illustrator, was born in New Jersey, and spent most of his childhood between the United States and France, where he attended the Morristown School in New Jersey and boarding school in Versailles. He claims that a great influence in his life is the circus: "I must have gone to the circus more than the average child; I believe thirty times a year was my usual quota . . . All of this love of the formal excitement of circus life must have somewhat influenced my life and choice of career." He does admit, though, the fact that his father was an artist (the American painter and art critic, Guy Pène du Bois), his mother (Florence Pène du Bois) a children's clothing designer, and his grandfathers a writer about book design and an appraiser of art objects, probably influenced him as well. "I seem to have taken the line of least resistance." He described his own book design philosophy as emphasizing the pictures more than the text, with "very little description in my stories. I try to make them jump from chapter to chapter like a program of vaudeville acts, full of rather unusual action from the far reaches of our globe." During his long career, Pène du Bois was honored with the coveted Newberry Medal (1948) and twice with the Caldecott Honor Award (1952 and 1957).
