159 174
288
●
GARTH WILLIAMS.
The Rabbits’ Wedding. “And they danced in a wedding circle.” Ink wash, pencil, and
charcoal on board. 295x475 mm; 11
3
/
4
x18
3
/
4
inches, image. Signed lower right. Matted
and framed.
[3,500/5,000]
Published as a double-page illustration on pp. 26-27 of the book with accompanying text: “Then
they picked dandelions and put them in their ears. All the other little rabbits came out to see how
happy they both were, and they danced in a wedding circle around the little black rabbit and the
little white rabbit.”With two ink transparency overlays of the background image mounted to frame
verso, and later (1986) reprint of the book.
The picture book made national news when segregationist Senator E. O. Eddins demanded that it
be removed from all libraries in his home state of Alabama and burned. He found the marriage of a
white and a black rabbit to be racially offensive, nothing more than bunny miscegenation. Library
Agency Director EmilyWheelock Reed of Montgomery came to the book’s defense and a compromise
was worked out: it was segregated to reserve sections of the libraries rather than freely available on
the open shelves and it could be borrowed only on special request. “I was completely unaware that
animals with white fur, such as white polar bears and white dogs and white rabbits, were considered
blood relations of white beings,”Williams replied to the criticism. “I was only aware that a white
horse next to a black horse looks very picturesque.”
287
●
GARTH WILLIAMS.
Original endpaper drawing for Stuart Little. Pen and ink with pencil and wash on paper.
286x392 mm; 11
1
/
4
x15
3
/
8
inches, image size.Very faint printer’s pencil measurements and
indications in lower background area which is a windowpane design drawn by Williams.
Archivally framed and matted.
[15,000/25,000]
288