Bidspirit auction | (AMERICAN-JUDAICA). Starr, Frederick. Ancient Pictures

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA). Starr, Frederick. Ancient Pictures for Little Moderns: Or Things Once Seen by Jewish Children. First Edition. Color and black-and-white illustrations throughout. pp. 48. Original color pictorial boards. 4to. New Haven, Conn.: Quinnipiac Press (1889) The first non-Biblical, Jewish illustrated children’s story-book printed in America. “Frank, Pinkie, Jakie, Sammie, and Abraham, - my five little Jews from Russia! …They left their native land because their fathers and mothers, being Jews, had no chance to do well there …So to America they came and here they are - my five little Jew boys - doing the best they can …Ours is the only land, the world over, where Jews can do well” (p. 5). Almost proto-Zionist in style, this highly sympathetic children’s book recounts the often oppressive life experienced by Jews in a varied range of mostly early civilizations. WorldCat locates just two copies worldwide.