The Story of Little Black Mingo
BANNERMAN, Helen
THE AUTHOR'S SECOND BOOK
Published: Nisbet, n.d. [c.1930]
Stock code: 18855
Price: £65.00
16mo., with coloured frontispiece and 34 full-page coloured illustrations in the text, some very light and occasional age-soiling to text (rather heavier on white margins of one or two plates); original pink cloth, upper board and backstrip lettered in black, red endpapers, boards lightly faded at upper edges else a very good, firm copy.
The author's second book, first published in 1901. Born in Edinburgh, Helen Bannerman (1862-1946) was a gifted children's illustrator who married a doctor in the Indian Medical Service and lived near Madras. Written for her daughters, her first three books, 'Little Black Sambo' (1899), 'Little Black Mingo' (1901) and 'Little Black Quibba' (1902) were set in an imaginary jungle world based on their real-life surroundings. All three titles (especially the first) were unusually successful and her second publisher, Nisbet, urged her to continue. Bannerman determined to create a series of cautionary tales emphasising the acumen of children (in this case of a young, girl who outwits a large crocodile). The stark nature of the tale is complemented by the curiously naive but graphic illustrations that derive extra impact from their simplicity. Disturbing by today's standards, the quasi-African setting and cold rationalism of the piece are entirely typical of the story's Edwardian context. SCARCE IN THIS CONDITION. See Horne, p.89.