Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver
1960 children's fantasy novel by Michael Ende
Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (German: Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer) is a children's novel written by Michael Ende. The main characters are Luke (Lukas) driver of Emma the steam locomotive, and his young friend/apprentice Jim Button (Jim Knopf) who go on an adventure together. The story begins and ends on the small fictional island of Morrowland (Lummerland).
The book was published in 1960, and received the German Young Literature Prize in 1961. It is one of the most successful German language children's books of the postwar era. The success led to thirty-four translations into other languages and the sequel Jim Button and the Wild 13 (Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13).
Ende did not see his book as a children's book, but just wrote it for himself. Over a dozen publishers rejected the book prior to publication.
Plot
Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver
The story begins on a tiny island called Morrowland (original German: Lummerland, a play on Nimmerland, the German translation of Neverland), which has just enough space for a small palace, a train station and rails all around the island, a grocery store, a small house, a king, two subjects, a locomotive named Emma, and a locomotive engineer by the name of Luke (Lukas) (who, as railway civil servant, is not a subject). One day, the postman – who has to come by ship – drops off a package with a nearly illegible address for a Mrs.
The public source identifies “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver” as 1960 children's fantasy novel by Michael Ende. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Button, Luke and Engine.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver”, the useful work is to connect “1960 children's fantasy novel by Michael Ende” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q704677. VIAF identifies the subject as 201222902. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960 and 1961.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver primary sources, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver archive and Button research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.