ELMER WAS DIFFERENT
Elmer
Dobson, 1968.
First edition. Square octavo. Original red cloth in (price clipped) pictorial dustwrapper. Illustrated throughout in colour by the author. A fine near copy in a very good dustwrapper which shows a little wear to the spine ends and rear joint and a couple of short closed tears at the corners, but is bright and well preserved
The rare first appearance of Elmer the Elephant, published as a stand alone work by the small publisher, Dennis Dobson. The inspiration for the character was not, as popular legend would have it, in response to a racist incident experienced by his mixed race family, but simply because McKee liked drawing elephants and squares.
"At the time I liked drawing elephants. I was a painter as well and my paintings were squared up, a bit Paul Klee-ish, and one day I mixed the two," he says. "One day I put the squares on the elephant, then I looked at him and the name Elmer, Elmer the Elephant, the usual alliteration, came to me." (interview with The Bookseller, March 2019).
Nevertheless, when the Andersen Press reprinted a shortened version of the original Elmer story in 1989, the gentle message of inclusion and acceptance was part of the book's immediate success, which spawned a series of subsequent books and wide range of popular merchandise about the patchwork Elephant.
Stock ID: 43038
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