Kerr, Judith (1923-2019)
The Crocodile under the Bed, a specially annotated copy given by Kerr to her art director Ian Craig
Estimate: £800 - £1,200
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
London: HarperCollins Children's Books, 2014. First edition, first impression, 4to, original pictorial boards, dust jacket, with pencilled annotations by Judith Kerr throughout (to some 18 pages in total, including front free endpaper), mainly recommending changes and additions for the paperback edition (to both text and images), together with related comments, one illustration amended by Kerr, with autograph covering note from Kerr to Ian Craig presenting the work: ‘Dear Ian, Here’s this funny thing - since annotated first editions seem to be in vogue, I thought I'd do a sort of working one. If my books remain in fashion, perhaps it will make your heirs rich! Lots of love, Judy'. Dust jacket slightly rumpled, nicked and marked, with self-adhesive label inscribed ‘Ian’ to front panel
Provenance
Estate of the late Ian Craig.
Footnote
Ian Craig (1944-2023) was art director at Jonathan Cape before moving to HarperCollins, where in 1992 he was assigned to Judith Kerr as her art editor and creative director. Craig left HarperCollins in 2001 but continued to work with Kerr in a freelance capacity until her death in 2019. Kerr paid tribute to Craig in her career retrospective Judith Kerr's Creatures, published in 2013: 'In 1992 I had a great stroke of luck, as Collins appointed the great Ian Craig as my art editor. It turned out that we thought alike on a great many things, which made working together a joy. We have now been working together for 20 years, during which he has struggled to fill the many remaining gaps in my education, due to my never having gone to illustration classes. He has designed all my books and usually thinks of what should go on the cover and he always knows the answer when I am stuck. He is now also my editor and is an inspiration and a friend'. Judith Kerr's reference to the vogue for annotated first editions in her note to Ian Craig is likely to be a reference to the charity auction ‘First Editions: Redrawn’, which was held at Sotheby's in London in December 2014 and included a specially annotated copy of The Tiger Who Came to Tea.