Custard the Dragon, and the Missing Stanza

[Dendarii_Dame]

Just checked the acknowledgements page in The Golden Treasury of Poetry (published by Golden Press) and it says “The Tale of Custard the Dragon” is from Ogden Nash’s The Face is Familiar, with a string of copyright dates ranging from 1931 to 1940.

The Golden Treasury of Poetry is illustrated by Joan Walsh Anglund, and “Custard” wouldn’t have fit on the two page spread in this book with that extra stanza, for what it’s worth.

[TroutMan]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

…which gets me back to wondering whether some busybody decided they understood Nash’s poem better than Nash did, and deliberately removed a stanza they found awkward or too sharp.

I’m reminded of the scene from Elf where they discover the children’s book was mistakenly printed with a blank page. “Just ship it, who cares if some kid doesn’t know what happened to the puppy.”