Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms; An original story based on Martin Branner's famous newspaper strip :Winie Winkle
Martin Branner Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Co., 1946. Authorized Edition [stated]. [As an 'original story' presumed first edition]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. The format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8 inches. 248, [4] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrated DJ has wear, soiling and scuffs and is in a plastic sleeve. Substantial page browning and fragile at the edges. Front and rear boards weak and have been restrengthened with glue. Martin Michael Branner (December 28, 1888 – May 19, 1970), known to his friends as Mike Branner, was a cartoonist who created the comic strip Winnie Winkle. In 1905, Martin Branner was an assistant to two men who booked vaudeville acts. He was a dancer who met Edith Fabbrini (1892–1966) when he was 18 and she was 15. They married a few days after they met, and the couple then entered vaudeville as a dance team. They spent 15 years performing in stock, musical comedy and vaudeville on the Keith Orpheum and Pantages circuits. Some of Branner's earliest artwork was published during this period when he did advertising illustrations for Variety. Branner launched Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner as a daily strip in September 1920, followed by a Sunday page in 1923. Edith Branner served as the model for the character of Winnie Winkle. By 1939, Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner was printed in 125 newspapers in America and Europe for a combined circulation of more than eight and a half million. The title was shortened to Winnie Winkle in 1943. Branner's long-time assistant was Max Van Bibber, who took over Winnie Winkle after Branner suffered a stroke in 1962. Branner began to use a wheelchair. Without the use of his right hand, he continued to draw with his left. In 1957, Branner was a guest challenger on the television panel show To Tell the Truth. Branner wrote and drew Winnie Winkle from 1920 to 1962, receiving the National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1958. Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms by Branner and Helen Berke was a 248-page hardcover novel published by Whitman in 1946. In answer to her friend's urgent call Winnie WInkle cancels her vacation plans and goes to Chicago, only to be hurried off to a lonely farm in search of a hidden legacy. Although held prisoners by two crooks, Winnie and her friends Mary Dee and Tommy, manage to outwit their jailers, search out the hidden legacy, and escape with their treasure intact. Condition: Fair / Good.
Keywords: Winnie Winkle, Mary Dee, Friends, Treasure, Legacy, Chicago, Farm, Crooks, Prisoners, Escape, Jailers, Heirloom
[Book #89976]
Price: $25.00