The Gremlins: A Royal Air Force Story by Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl from the Walt Disney Production

New York: Random House, 1943. Oversize 9" x 11 1/4" design. Red pictorial boards with bold yellow titles, black spine titles on brick red cloth spine wrap, moderate corner wear, rub. Cover depicts the gremlins at work destroying an RAF fighter plane at front; back cover features similar vignette, hand drill and saw in hand on rear wing. Yellow endpapers feature monochromatic red collage scenes of the horned gremlins playfully using their tools of pickaxe, bombs, oil cans, saws, hammers, etc. with silhouette planes in b.g. Pages very good, clean; no writing. Bind good; hinges intact. Scarce sharp first edition with moderate wear. A whimsical tale of devilish imps creating aerial havoc for the Allied Forces in the skies of WWII. Full page color designs throughout, with b&w illustrations, partial-page imagery and vignettes. Roald Dahl was sent to Washington DC in 1942 as an assistant air attache for the British Embassy. After having a story published anonymously in the Saturday Evening Post, he was encouraged by C. S. Forester to pursue his writing talent. He then wrote The Gremlins, a children's story expanding on a mythical creature enshrined for years in RAF lore, although Dahl claims to have invented the word himself. He sent short story to Sidney Bernstein, the head of the British Information Service, who forwarded it on to Walt Disney. Disney decided to make it into a movie, at one point bringing Dahl to Hollywood for the screenplay. The story was published in Cosmopolitan in December of 1942, and as a book by Random House six months later. The film, however, was sidelined and was never produced. The Gremlins was well received and Eleanor Roosevelt read it to her grandchildren, and even invited Roald to the White House. Apprx. 75 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. Illus. by Walt Disney Artists . 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.