Thunder Cave: The Thrilling Adventures of Giant Wigwah and the Two Little Colored Boys, Jasper and Zebbie. Told in Eighteen Fascinating Episodes of Sparkling Humor and Gripping Mystery.
Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft Company, 1945. Jack Sears. Reprint. Hardcover. SIGNED. Octavo [23.5 cm] in pictorial boards over red cloth spine. Heavy rubbing to boards has largely effaced front board illustration; smudging, toning, and light dampstaining to boards, some abrasions to rear boards, corners bumped and exposed; inner hinges cracked and exposed (but holding); 'me' written in pencil in the "This Book Belongs To:" space, small inkstain to textblock foot bleeds slightly into lower margins; occasional light soiling and short tears throughout, but text is clean overall, and just faintly toned. B&W illustrations in text and two-tone plates. Fair. Item #45718
Signed and inscribed by illustrator Jack Sears, with an original ink and colored pencil drawing, on half-title verso.
Thunder Cave has been described as "The Wizard of Oz meets Little Black Sambo" Black-face, savage Indians and racial stereotypes were the order of the day. Fantastically illustrated by Jack Sears. First serialized in Grandma Betty's Kiddie Rhymes. Stokes and Sears founded the Thunder Cave Corp. to make their fortune and envisioned an empire of merchandising spinoffs and coast to coast marketing The reality was that, other than the book, and for a time, a local radio show, nothing else ever materialized.
Price: $150.00