Rupert Bear Annual 1958

This is a first edition of the 1958 Rupert Bear annual, in excellent condition, published by the Daily Express. There is an expected level of wear and tear for these vintage classic books and some may have added pencil from previous owners.

The first Rupert Annual was launched in 1936. The stories famously comprise three main elements: the artwork, the prose and the rhyming couplet. For many a child, the joy of Christmas was made complete by the gift of the new Rupert Annual. Most of the included stories are reprinted from the Daily Express newspaper strips which were in full colour from 1940. Some stories were especially written and illustrated for the annual and these are noted. From 1941, the covers comprised a piece of "wrap-around" artwork and each annual from 1950 had endpapers of equally beautiful artwork.

Rupert Bear is an English children's comic strip character and franchise created by Herbert Tourtel and illustrated by his wife, the artist Mary Tourtel, first appearing in the Daily Express newspaper on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. In 1935, the stories were taken over by Alfred Bestall, who was previously an illustrator for Punch and other glossy magazines. Bestall proved to be successful in the field of children's literature and worked on Rupert stories and artwork into his nineties.

Author: Alfred Bestall
Artist: Alfred Bestall
Publisher: The London Express Newspaper Ltd., 1958 First Edition (Out of Print)
Number of pages: 125
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 7" x 10" (185mm x 245mm)
Code: RUPERT1958