A Visit to William Blake’s Inn 1981 First British Edition Hardcover Newbery Medal

🚀 Newbery Medal Winner & Caldecott Honor — the award-winning children’s poetry classic

“A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers,” by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen.

**HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT**

The first book ever to win the Newbery Medal and receive a Caldecott Honor in the same year (1982). It also earned a Golden Kite Honor Book and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award — a rare quadruple honor in children’s literature.

**THE BOOK**

Sixteen original poems by Nancy Willard (1928–2017), inspired by William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience.” The verses follow a child’s visit to Blake’s imaginary inn, inhabited by a tiger, a rabbit, the Wise Cow, the King of Cats, the Man in the Marmalade Hat, and Blake himself. Willard wrote over 65 books, including the award-winning Anatole trilogy.

**COVER ART AND ILLUSTRATIONS**

Full-color gouache paintings throughout by Alice and Martin Provensen, whose distinctive style blends folk-art charm with rich architectural detail. The cover shows a man in 18th-century dress walking beside a tiger, with an owl and crescent moon above. The back cover depicts a fantastical boat-carriage carrying children and animals. Interior spreads feature the inn’s cityscape with dragons and angels, a bear gazing from a window, the Man in the Marmalade Hat, and period-dressed figures — all rendered in warm earth tones with blue accents. Heavy semi-glossy pages, 45 pages total.

**WHY IT MATTERS**

– 1982 John Newbery Medal (awarded to Nancy Willard)
– 1982 Caldecott Honor Book (Provensens named runners-up)
– First Newbery winner to also receive a Caldecott Honor
– ISBN 0 416 22160 2 | Methuen Children’s Books, London
– One poem, “Two Sunflowers Move into the Yellow Room,” is frequently misattributed to Blake himself

**FOR COLLECTORS**

First British edition, second printing before publication — an early and desirable copy of a landmark children’s book, now protected in a removable archival sleeve.

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“This is a ‘very good’ vintage book with with the only flaw to speak of being the tale of the spine is bumped.

The vintage dust jacket shows the original publisher’s price of 7.95 sterling inside the front flap. A little edge wear in places, but overall a very pleasing vintage wrapper, now protected in a removable archival sleeve.

See accompanying images for full condition details.

Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.”

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