Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat. Eine Geschichte für Kinder und auch für Solche, welche die Kinder lieb haben.

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2 leaves, 178 pp. 8vo. Orig. red cloth, black ornamental decoration, gilt lettering on front cover and spine. First edition of the second Heidi book. Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) created with "Heidi" the most important Swiss contribution to world children's literature after the "Swiss Robinson" by J. R. Wyss. Her classic saw countless editions and translations.- Old ms. name on title, very well-preserved considering its popularity, a clean and nice copy. Johanna Louise Spyri (12 June 1827 – 7 July 1901) was a Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories, and is best known for her book Heidi. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels. In 1852, Johanna Heusser married Bernhard Spyri. Bernhard was a lawyer. Whilst living in the city of Zürich she began to write about life in the country. Her first story, A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, which deals with a woman's life of domestic violence, was published in 1880; the following year further stories for both adults and children appeared, among them the novel Heidi, which she wrote in four weeks. Heidi tells the story of an orphan girl who lives with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps, and is famous for its vivid portrayal of the landscape. Her husband and her only child, both named Bernhard, both died in 1884. Alone, she devoted herself to charitable causes and wrote over fifty more stories before her death in 1901. She was interred in the family plot at the Sihlfeld-A Cemetery in Zürich. An icon in Switzerland, Spyri's portrait was placed on a postage stamp in 1951 and on a 20 CHF commemorative coin in 2009.

Seebass II, 1930; Hürlimann 310; Weilenmann 3233; Wegehaupt III, 3633.