Der Struwwelpeter, “Shockheaded Peter” by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, a physician from Frankfurt who also worked in children’s psychiatry. Frankfurt edition with the full name of the author on the cover, and Shockheaded Peter moved from the last page to the first page. Frankfurt [no year mentioned, late 19th century] – The most successful German children’s book of all time, translated into many languages and which served as the source for countless parodies written in its format. German.
Heinrich Hoffman originally wrote the story in a notebook as a Christmas gift for his three year old son Karl in 1844. The notebook contained five stories: Cruel Frederick, The Story of the Inky Boys, The Story of the Wild Huntsman, The Story of the Thumb-Sucker, and The Story of Soup-Kaspar. Since there was one blank page left at the end, Hoffman quickly created the Shockheaded Peter episode – the boy with long hair and nails he didn’t cut for a year. That year saw the first published edition of the book, which Hoffman described as “Merry stories and amusing pictures with colorful and beautiful plates for children aged three to six years by a merry rhymester and children lover”. It was a year until a second edition appeared, which Hoffman signed under the name Heinrich Kinderlieb (“Heinrich Children-Lover”). This edition added the stories of Paulinchen and The Matches and of The Story of Fidgety Philip. In this edition, the stories of Johnny Look-in-the-Air and of Flying Robert were added, and Heinrich Hoffman signed with his full name. In that edition, due to the popularity of the character Shockheaded Peter, he was moved from the last page to the first page, henceforth titled “Struwwelpeter”. In 1858 Hoffman redrew the illustrations using a woodcut engraving technique following criticism that the original illustrations were unsuitable for children.
The first Hebrew translation of the book was done by Lily Tzadok, published under the name “Yehoshua HaParua” in 1940 by Yoachim Goldshtein Publishing.
24 p. 25 cm. Good – Very good condition.