Heinrich Hoffmann
Slovenly Peter or Cheerful Stories and Funny Pictures for Good Little Folks.
Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, circa 1944. Special edition. Unpaginated.
Volume, measuring approximately 8.25" x 10.25", is bound in red cloth, with black lettering to spine and elaborate pictorial designs in black on front cover. Book displays very light shelfwear, with mild rubbing to bottom edges of covers. Binding is firm. Scattered light foxing appears on front pastedown. Previous owner's gift inscription (dated Christmas 1955) can be seen at top of front flyleaf. Pages are clean and bright, "with Colored Illustrations After the Original Style."
One of the earliest children's picture books published in Germany as "Der Struwwelpeter," ("Slovenly Peter," sometimes called "Shaggy Peter") was published in 1845 by Heinrich Hoffmann. Consisting of ten illustrated and rhyming stories about children, the book aims to teach young ones actual life lessons. Some of the stories in "Slovenly Peter" include "The Dreadful Story of the Matches," where a girl is killed after playing with matches, and "The Story of Johnny Head-in-Air," where a boy fails to look where he is walking and loses his favorite writing book in the river as a consequence.