The Gremlins. From The Walt Disney Production. A Royal Air Force Story. Dahl, Roald.

First British edition, first impression, of the author's first book. The book was first published in the US in 1943. Writing in 2006, the Disney historian Leonard Maltin described the volume as "a milestone" and a "charming book". The book was written as a promotional device for a feature-length Disney animation that was never produced, partly because the studio could not establish firm copyright in the "gremlin" characters (Dahl claimed to have invented them, although they had been common currency in the RAF and had appeared in print at least once before), and partly because the British Air Ministry wanted final approval of the script and production. It was eventually agreed that royalties on the book would be split between the RAF Benevolent Fund and Dahl. The book is described on the title and the front cover as being "From the Walt Disney Production"; the Disney studio wrote to Dahl in August 1943 after the American publication cancelling any further preproduction work. Leonard Maltin, "The Gremlins Got 'Em" in Roald Dahl, The Gremlins, 2006. Quarto. Original cloth-backed boards, red pictorial front cover lettered in yellow and black, unlettered grey rear cover, red and yellow pictorial endpapers. Issued without dust jacket. Colour frontispiece, 12 full-page colour illustrations (including one double-page illustration), numerous black and white illustrations in text. Creases and light soiling to spine, extremities slightly rubbed, minor loss to top right corner of front cover, other creases and minor abrasions, hinges splitting as usual, occasional foxing: a very good copy.