This children’s songbook was written by A. A. Milne, the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, and it’s a limited and numbered edition signed by Milne, Fraser-Simson (the composer), and E. H. Shepard (the illustrator). The songbook is titled “More Very Young Songs” and there are ten songs inside.

The book is folio size at 13 x 10 1/4 inches wide, with a quarter cloth blue spine, gray boards, a paper label on the front cover, blank endpapers, the half-title, a list of songs by Milne, Shepard, and Fraser-Simson on the frontis page, then the title page, which says the book was published in London by Methuen and Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew, and the limitation page says the book was published in 1928 and it is number 3 of only 100 copies ever published, which means the book was very early in the print run, and the limitation page is signed by Milne, Fraser-Simson, and Ernest Shepard. The Contents page lists the ten songs and the book has 40 pages of song and music, a flyleaf near the end says the book was printed by Lowe & Brydone Printers on Victoria Road, 10 N.W., and there are blank endpapers at the rear. 

The songbook is in very good condition. It is clean and tight, with a clean paper label in front and tape residue at the top of the front cover, modest brown spots along the right edge of the front cover, a faint brown spot on the title page and faint brown spots on the back cover. Overall a very attractive copy of this rare signed copy by Milne and the composer and illustrator. 

When the verses for When We Were Very Young first appeared in Punch, Milne was approached by numerous composers who wanted to set the verses to music. Milne chose Fraser-Simson because Fraser-Simson was his neighbor in Chelsea and the composer of a phenomenally successful musical called The Maid of the Mountains. Eventually there would be 67 songs altogether based on Milne’s lyrics, and there are only 100 copies of this signed edition in the whole world. 

Size: 13 x 10 1/4 in. 

#5466