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Oliver and Boyd, Published 1962. Hardcover, 92 pp.; 31 cm; First English Edition (so stated on the colophon); profusely illustrated throughout in full color and black-and-white by Romain Simon; decorated endpapers at front and back with illustrations of 16 numbered tree leaves keyed to a glossary at the back. Translated from the French "La Forêt et Ses Bêtes," originally published by Gautier-Languereau, Paris, 1960. Printed in Great Britain by McCorquodale & Co. Ltd., Glasgow.
In Good condition with an Acceptable dust jacket. Large cream pictorial boards reproducing the cover illustration (a doe and fawn in a forest clearing) show light bumping, scuffing, and age spotting to edges and corners. Binding is tight. Pages lightly toned but otherwise unmarked. Dust jacket has several moderate to large chips and tears, including a 4-inch closed tear at the top of the front panel, a 3-inch tear at the bottom of the front panel with approximately 1/2 inch missing, a 1-inch chip at the top near the spine, and a 1-inch chip on the back panel along the top edge. Dust jacket is price-clipped at the bottom edge of the front flap. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. "Animals of the Forest" is a large-format illustrated children's natural history book, a companion volume to "Animals of the Wild," first published in French by Gautier-Languereau in 1960 as "La Forêt et Ses Bêtes" and translated by Oliver and Boyd for this first English edition in 1962. Each chapter follows a named woodland character, Flame the Fox, His Excellency the Pheasant, Bubo the Eagle Owl, Monarch the Red Deer, Gossip the Jay, and others, through a brief natural history sketch illustrated in full color by the French illustrator Romain Simon (1916 to 2007), a prolific mid-century contributor to Gautier-Languereau and Hachette children's titles. The book closes with a two-page flower identification quiz ("Can you name these flowers?") picturing and keying 22 wildflowers of the European woodland, and a glossary of woodland terms (drey, earth, earth pigs, form, haunt, holt, leveret, set, tines, velvet, and others). The decorated endpapers at front and back illustrate 16 numbered tree leaves identified on page 92 (Beech, Oak, Silver Birch, Hazel, Spruce, Poplar, Ash, Elm, Scots Pine, Lime, Sycamore, Willow, Hornbeam, Fir, Larch, and Acacia).