[Literature & Art] Silverstein, Shel. (1930 - 1999). The Missing Piece Meets the Big O - The Author's Draft Pages, with Autograph Corrections, Additions and Drawings throughout. From the estate of the author, a loose set of mostly unnumbered and non-sequential proof or galley pages, printed on fax paper, being working drafts towards the completion of the book. 55 pages, of which 34 sides are annotated and edited with text and/or drawings in the hand of the author in ink or pencil, including illustrations which have never been published in any form, these pages apparently exchanged with his editor by fax and retained by the author. Undated, sold together with an apparently earlier letter (TLS, 1 page, 9/21/75) from Ursula Nordstrom, publisher and Editor-in-chief of juvenile books at Harper & Row from 1940 to 1973, to Silverstein concerning delivery of the final proofs of the original Missing Piece, and other matters. The proof pages measuring 14 x 8.5 inches, edges worn, corners creased, stains and wrinkling on a number of pages, generally good condition.

Capturing the essence of the human spirit in the simplicity of a circle, in his celebrated 1976 children's book "The Missing Piece," Silverstein illustrated a circle searching for his 'soul mate.' The Circle is happy in life, but feels incomplete, and longs for the day when it will finally find what it has been missing. We see the Circle finding many pieces, all perfectly fine alone, but just not the right fit with our Circle. Some are too large, or too small, or too pointy. Still, the Circle doesn't give up. It just merrily rolls along, talking to a worm, or smelling a flower, and singing its song. A sequel, "The Missing Piece Meets The Big O" was published in 1981, this volume told from a Missing Piece's point of view.