Catharine Susan’s Little Holiday.

Unchecked imaginations at the Fancy Goods Carnival

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Unrecorded. If John Held, Hunter S. Thompson, and Dare Wright collaborated to produce a children’s book, this might have been the result.

Catharine Susan is a jointed doll in a disjointed narrative. A school teacher, Susan decides she needs a vacation. After a dream of a pillow-fight with other doll girls, she finds herself shipwrecked with a young soldier boy doll.

As the two dolls picnic, a completely-benign green frog startles Susan causing her to swoon from the sheer amphibious horror. The boy soldier stops her fall and stabs the defenseless frog in the heart with his rapier. This violent act bizarrely segues into Susan getting ready for a baseball game and of then encountering an “ugly farmer” who learns kindness. Susan then goes home and writes about her holiday journey.

Watt & Shand of Lancaster and Columbia, Pennsylvania published this oddity. They wanted the local children to visit their Fancy Goods Carnival and to buy their wood and iron toys and their books: “Our Book Counters will be one of the busy corners of the store. Picture books, Story Books ... [etc.]” They also advertised their Doll Family. From plain to elegant, from 25 cents to $5.00 each.

Price: $300.00