Saturday, May 13, 2017

about those books


The other day I found two Dick Bruna books in a box of things I had set aside for a garage sale, and posted a photo of them on Instagram and Facebook. I was keeping an eye out for them because I recently found a quilt with Bruna fabrics.


Not long before I found the quilt, Bruna passed away. I was intrigued by the fabrics, and found a Bruna handkerchief online. It arrived last week.


I found a couple other handkerchiefs and ordered them, but they are coming from the Far East and will take time to get here.



I was happy to find the two books, especially because my friend David Nemitz from high school gave them to me probably more than 20 years ago. We have known each other a long time, since 1980 when we lived in the same dormitory. His name is in one of the books, the one called Kitten Nell.


Eventually, curiosity got the best of me, and I started looking for other books online. There were some, but hardly any from the 1963 date of the publication in my two books. I found one copy of The Fish on Etsy, and three copies of Kitten Nell on Amazon.



When I saw the prices, I almost fell out of my seat. It would cost $200 to replace the two books. Thank goodness I came to my senses and quickly gained an appreciation for Bruna in all his brilliance. It would've been sad to let those books go. Regardless of their market value, they are priceless.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, that is very interesting! I have always been smitten by some illustrators of children's books. That picture of the firemen looks so familiar to me. Do you know if that appeared in a specific book? How did you recognize the fabrics in the quilt as his? Did you know that he had designed fabrics?

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