A rare double signed copy of the author's first book. Slim quarto, 65 pp., original illustrated red cloth. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpage facing the title, "For Paul- For Lord's Sake / Kay Thompson" and some years later, by the illustrator Hilary Knight, who adds in a darker black ink "and Hilary Knight / 2000." Chipping and wear to ends of spine, lower edge and corners, in the original dust jacket, worn with significant tears and losses to the spine and upper and lower front edges.  A very good copy of a classic title rarely found signed by both of the creators.

Maurice Sendak called Eloise a "brazen, loose-limbed little monster" and anyone who has been introduced to the eccentric 6-year-old who spends her days at large in New York's Plaza Hotel pouring water down the mail chute and managing her self-imposed responsibilities can't help but be fascinated. “Eloise’s birth was unexpected. At rehearsals of her act with the Williams Brothers, Thompson [who was a professional singer] prized punctuality. Then one day she was late. In a high, childish voice that she had never used before, she made her apology. One of her co-workers said, ‘Who are you, little girl?’ Thompson replied, ‘I am Eloise. I am six.’ The others joined in the game, each assuming a juvenile identity, and it became a regular rehearsal pastime” (New York Times). That pastime became a book, with three more to follow in Thompson’s lifetime. “Eloise became an alternative persona for Kay Thompson, much as the dummy Charlie McCarthy was for Edgar Bergen? [allowing] Thompson to express contrarian thoughts and ideas. Eloise took form as a lonely and whimsical child who created her own world” (Marie Brenner).