once upon a time in america While fairy tales are usually associated with European sources like the Brothers Grimm, American Fairy Tales: From Rip Van Winkle to the Rootabaga Stories, edited by Neil Philip, preface by Alison Lurie, illus. by Michael McCurdy, defines a unique heritage on this side of the Atlantic. The selections include both familiar and little-known tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum and, as the title suggests, Washington Irving and Carl Sandburg. McCurdy's dramatic black-and-white woodcut prints add an eerie edge to the distinctive stories, which are a cut above the more usual, normalizing fairy tale retellings. Headnotes for each story provide brief biographies of the authors.