The Life I Live: Collected Poems (Fully Illustrated by Lenski); Lois Lenski; Walck (1965); 1st/1st (7.50 price on front flap); 8vo, VGVG; Not Ex-Library, Not Facsimile, Not Print on Demand; Hb-Bright blue w/crisp, stamped gilt lettering+decoration to front+spine, almost no edgewear. DUST JACKET-Bright multi-colored pictorial front w/blue back,white lettering, chipping to spine top/bottom/points, brodart protected. 238pps- clean (previous owner’s name inked on last name. ‘The Life I Live’ is first complete collection of Lenski's verse: 368 selections, profusely illustrated.
Beloved author+illustrator of children’s + young adult books + poetry, Lois Lenski won the Newbery Medal for her 1946 book ‘Strawberry Girl’ part of a collection of American regional children’s novels.
From the book’s forward written by Lenski
‘This is the happiest of all my books. Into it has gone a lifetime of love and devotion to children. Most of my poems have been spontaneous outpourings, only a few have been devious contrivings. They have sung themselves to me at odd times and in unexpected places- at the supermarket or the kitchen sink, in the garden while weeding or in bed at night and during illnesses at home or in the hospital when I have been kept from my regular work. My poems are the very essence, the fabric behind all my work for children. The themes in them are my life’s blood. They are my legacy to the children I love.