Item #0002 – A Book of Unicorns (1978)

Is this for realz?! I’m not a fan of unicorns, but I am a fan of ridiculousness.

I stumbled upon this vintage treasure at Goodwill in Columbia and flipped through the pages in awe with a deeply furrowed brow while ignoring the fact I was constantly in the way of my fellow shoppers. I was locked in for this crazy ride after reading the preface: “This book attempts to present the mystery of the Unicorn rather than to unravel it.” (Thank you for respecting my time, book.)

A Book of Unicorns includes 12 tipped-in color plates with frameable art such as these….

Excerpts of stories, poems, and drawings about the origins and wonder of unicorns are dispersed throughout for the mythical creature enthusiast or prone-to-a-furrowed-brow book flipper.

In “The Sailing of the Ark,” we learn that Noah’s son, Ham, was so annoyed with the overcrowding and amount of work on the ark that he refused to let the unicorn inside the animal sanctuary. (Thanks a lot, lazy! You could have switched out a cat for the unicorn!)

OK, enough about the book itself because the “Skittles and Rainbows” question of the day is…who made this book?

Well, it is a Star & Elephant Book from The Green Tiger Press. (This one is the first edition published in 1978. A blue cover edition is the later version with a note about the revision.) Here are some more titles…

Green Tiger Press was started by Harold and Sandra Darling in 1969 out of their love for sharing old children’s books. The name was sold to Simon & Schuster in 1989. They now run Laughing Elephant which distributes books and gifts with beautiful vintage images (read: ephemera heaven). From my understanding, they reacquired the “Green Tiger Press” name and also sell greeting cards, art prints, and wooden signs chock-full of nostalgic whimsy with the help of their family. Here’s a few treasures you can find on their site for purchase:

If you know me, I HEART vintage children’s books (get ready to see a lot of them showcased here). Also, if I see old paper anything, I tear it up immediately like a crazy woman after careful examination for collages and decoupage projects such as this one in Doe Eyes the Fierce’s room:

So, this post about a book ended up introducing me to this amazing company! Ladies and gentlemen, mind.is.blown. (Buckle up, I’m sure this will happen often.)

Status: Item sold on 8/13/16.

Random For You:

Sandra Darling, one of the owners of Laughing Elephant, is known by many as Alexandra Day, creator of Good Dog, Carl books.

Oh, you don’t know what “ephemera” means? Any little momento (a ticket, sticker, advertisement, game piece, etc.) usually, BUT NOT ALWAYS, tends to be old. Just search for it on ebay or Pinterest…(waiting for you to do that)….you see? You are very welcome. Get crafty!

A piece of ephemera is an ephemeron.