A Hat for Rhinoceros: And other stories by GILL, Margery (illustrator); HEWETT, Anita; - 1959

London: The Bodley Head, 1959. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR. Slim 8vo, pp. 80, amply illustrated by Gill in the year of publication. Light blue cloth, spine lettered in red and black. Slight lean to spine, offsetting from dust jacket, fine bands of sunning at board edges. Edges and endpapers foxed, occasionally to text block. Inscribed by Gill in blue pen to b/w frontis, below her illustration of a rhinoceros with its hat: "Best wishes,/ Margery Gill/ 1959". In Gill's original illustrated dust jacket: price-clipped, light wear to extremities, spine darkened, toned and spotted, short closed tear to top edge of front panel. Still, the cover art remains pleasingly vivid. Very good/ very good. A lovely copy of Hewett's "jungle tales for young children," scarce signed by Gill. Very good/ very good Born in Scotland, Margery Gill (1925 – 2008) was a prolific illustrator of children's books, who had specialised in etching and engraving at the Royal College of Art. Gill combined freelance work as an illustrator with motherhood and, from 1955, a teaching job at Maidstone College of Art. Her early work was for OUP, but she is most associated with her long tenure working for John Ryder at the Bodley Head. She was much admired by fellow children's author and illustrator Shirley Hughes, who observed: "I thought her work was terrific. It made me look to my laurels. It was modern – the children she depicted were less sweet. Margery used solid black line with tremendous fluidity and ease: the way her children stood and moved was very distinctive." Alongside the rhinoceros, the stories feature 'Upside-down Loris,' 'The Stamping Elephant,' and 'Terrible Tiger's Party'.