Although a German-language version of the film had been made since 1938, it was not released in Austria until 1948, and in Germany in 1950. It was then that this book came out in a format very similar to what had been released in France 12 years earlier in the Hachette collection, although there the similarity ends. While this is also mainly prose, with color and black & white illustrations, the latter appear to be original, although inspired by the studio’s own illustrations, notably those by Tom Wood. The dust jacket tells us that the same collection includes titles such as Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Bongo, Peter and the Wolf and others.
No information is given as to the author of the text, but the book was published by Blüchert-Verlag, Stuttgart, and printed by K.G. Lohse, Frankfurt-am-Main. The dust jacket indicates that 2.5 million copies were printed in all languages.
Here again, we find the cut scenes from the film that are usually present in book adaptations: Snow White’s mother, the construction of the bed, the witch mixing the contents of her cauldron with a femur. Notably, the book cover features the dwarfs to the detriment of the heroine, who is absent from the drawing.
The Book
