Little Black Sambo is the sort of boutique "issue" that
middle-class liberals love to obsess about, while they
sell out the unions, the environment, black America,
and even themselves, but there's nothing racist about
the book itself, although not every illustrator of one
or another of the many, many editions created a masterpiece
like Gustaf Tenngren's illustrations for Little Golden Books,
and likewise with The Poky Little Puppy. It's the all-time
best-selling children's book in the USA!
Gustaf Tenggren's early work betrays the influence of Arthur
Rackham and similar fairy-tale illustrators of the pre-WWI
British book trade, but in Little Black Sambo and The Poky
Little Puppy, he was probably closer to the magical perspective
of Susanna and the Elders.
