Children and Young Adult
Little Men; Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871. First Edition. Hardcover. First printing of the first American edition, sixmo size, 384 pp. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), penned this sequel two years after "Little Women" which was popular immediately upon publication. Alcott, an abolitionist and feminist, grew up surrounded by many of the 19th-century literary..... More
Peter and Wendy
London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1911]. Bedford, F. D. First Edition. Hardcover. First printing, octavo size, 275 pp., with dust jacket, in a custom box. Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) wrote numerous novels and plays for both children and adults, but he is best known for "Peter Pan", a hugely successful..... More
J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens; Retold by May Bryon for Little People with the Permission of the Author
London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, [1929]. Rackham, Arthur. Hardcover. Octavo size, 123 pp. With Ex-Libris of J.M. Barrie which apparently is not unique, there being one other copy online as of this writing with the same plate. The ink looks genuine but the signatures are the same; interestingly, the library..... More
Stories from the Pentamerone
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1911. Goble, Warwick. Limited Edition. Vellum. One of 150 copies, the Edition de Luxe, quarto size, 316 pp. The text of this book is based on John Edward Taylor's translation from 1847. Giambattista Basile (1566-1632) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. The..... More
Jaglon and the Tiger Fairies
Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co., (1953). Ulrey, Dale. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto size, [39] pp. While L. Frank Baum's (1856-1919) stories of the land of Oz are his most popular and successful works, Baum wrote a number of animal stories in 1905, which he called "animal fairy stories", going..... More
Cautionary Tales for Children; Designed for the Admonition of Children between the ages of eight and fourteen years
London: Eveleigh Nash, [1907]. B. T. B. [Lord Basil Temple Blackwood]. First Edition. Hardcover. First printing, octavo size, 80 pp. This collection of verses, intended as a parody of cautionary tales written for children, was written by Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), a prolific writer and poet as well as an avid..... More
The Tiger in the Teapot
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. Pène du Bois, William. First Edition. Hardcover. First edition in book form and with Pène du Bois illustrations, duodecimo size, 32 pp. A charming story of a family and its tiger (who simply won't get out of the teapot), this children's story is..... More
Giovanni and the Other Children Who Have Made Stories
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. Birch, Reginald B. First Edition. Hardcover. First US edition, octavo size, 224 pp. The work of Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) captured the imaginations of readers, with her enduring novels such as "The Secret Garden" and "Sara Crewe"; this collection of stories for children demonstrates..... More
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
New York and Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, (1969). Carle, Eric. First Edition. Hardcover. First printing, oblong quarto, 28 pp., in first issue dust jacket. Eric Carle (b. 1929) is known world-wide for this, his third book, which has been translated into more than 60 languages and has sold more..... More
Polly's Lion; A California Story for Children
San Francisco: Carnahan Publishing, 1902. Second Edition. Hardcover. Octavo size, 174 pp. Second edition (stated) of "probably the first novel set in the Fresno area." Likely the first story set in Fresno, although with much of the action being set in Yosemite where the family goes on several trips. The..... More
A Child's Book of Abridged Wisdom
San Francisco: Paul Elder & Company / The Tomoye Press, 1905. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Duodecimo size, 28 pp., in scarce dust jacket. A charming book on manners for children, told in verse with humorous word-play, accompanied by line drawings that bring the verses to life - complete with walking flowers..... More
The Jolly Jump-Ups and Their New House
Springfield, MA: McLoughlin Bros., Inc., 1939. Clyne, Geraldine. Hardcover. Quarto size (oblong), [7] pp. "The Jolly Jump-Ups" is a pop-up book by Geraldine Clyne featuring the Jump-Up family and their escapades as they move to a new house. Showcasing charming illustrations by Clyne, each page contains a full-colour pop-up scene..... More
The Daughters of the Stars
London: Hatchard & Co., 1939. Dulac, Edmund. First Edition. Hardcover. First trade edition, quarto size, 198 pp. Written, as the author sets forth in the Foreword, to address the issue that, "Readers of fairy tales and other romantic fiction will have noticed before this that the Mothers of the heroines..... More
Midnight Revels
San Francisco: Sunset Press, 1939. Kraemer, Xavier. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo size, 85 pp., signed by Xavier Kraemer. A delightful fairy story told in poem form, of a dream wherein dolls come alive and dance and celebrate - until the dawn when the "dream" ends - the dream that the..... More
St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine For Young Folks. Volume XXIX Part II, May 1902 To October 1902 [Includes first appearance of "The Cruise of the Dazzler" and "To Repel Boarders" by Jack London]
New York: The Century Co., 1902. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo size , 582 pp. This volume includes six months of the wonderful St. Nicholas children's magazine, with the July issue containing the first published appearance of the short story "The Cruise of the Dazzler" (pp. 784-812). ___DESCRIPTION: Decorated red cloth..... More
The Play-Day Book: New Stories for Little Folks
New York: Mason Brothers, 1857. Coffin, Fred[erick] M. Hardcover. Sixteenmo, 292 pp. Early reprint of a children's book by Fannie Fern, the pen name of Sara Willis (1811-1872) who struggled as a young widow to provide for her children by writing, eventually becoming the highest-paid columnist in the United States..... More
Pocket-Handkerchief Park
Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc., 1929. Field, Rachel. First Edition. Hardcover. 24mo size, 67 pp. Rachel Lyman Field (1894-1942) was a well-loved children's author, as well as a novelist and poet; she is best known for her Newbery Award-winning "Hitty, Her First Hundred Years". She was also..... More
Polly Patchwork
Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc., 1928. Field, Rachel. First Edition. Hardcover. 24mo size, 62 pp. Rachel Lyman Field (1894–1942) was an American novelist, poet, and children's fiction writer, best known for her Newbery Award-winning "Hitty, Her First Hundred Years". Field also won a National Book Award, Newbery..... More
What We Saw at Madame World's Fair; Being a Series of Letters from the Twins at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to Their Cousins at Home
San Francisco: Samuel Levinson, 1915. Corbett, Bertha. Hardcover. Octavo size, 99 pp. "What We Saw at Madame World's Fair" is the story of two sisters at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. This world's fair was held in San Francisco, California, and featured such dazzling attractions as the Tower of..... More
M. C. Higgins, the Great
New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., (1974). First Edition. Hardcover. First printing, no Newbery Medal on dust jacket, octavo size, 288 pp. Coming-of-age novels spin stories that resonate with people from all walks of life, and "M. C. Higgins, the Great" is no exception. Virginia Hamilton (1936-2002) masterfully tells the..... More
Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings; New and Revised Edition, With One Hundred and Twelve Illustrations
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1895. Frost, A. B. Limited Edition. Hardcover. No. 233 of 250 copies, octavo size, 289 pp., signed at the Preface by Joel Chandler Harris. The stories told by Joel Chandler Harris' (1848-1908) character Uncle Remus feature the popular Brer Rabbit from African-American folklore, a...... More
Prinz Grunewald und Perlenfein mit ihrem lieben Eselein [Prince Grunewald and Perlenfein with their Dear Little Donkey]
Frankfurt: Rutten & Loening, ca. 1905. Cardboard covers. 15th edition, quarto size, 24 pp., all text in German. Heinrich Hoffmann (1809-1894) although a successful psychiatrist, is remembered primarily for his children's stories - Struwwelpeter, his first book, being one of the most famous. While the stories may strike us today..... More
Slovenly Peter (der Struwwelpeter), or, Happy Tales and Funny Pictures, Freely Translated into English by Mark Twain
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. Kredel, Fritz. Second Edition. Hardcover. Octavo size, 32 pp. A classic German children's tale originally published in 1845 (with corresponding politically-incorrect racial allusions), comprised of ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of..... More
The Ingoldsby Legends; Or Mirth & Marvels
London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1907. Rackham, Arthur. First Edition. Hardcover. First trade edition with additional Rackham illustrations on enlarged paper, quarto size, 568 pp., in original dust jacket. This book was first published in 1898 with only twelve illustrations, this being the first trade edition of the newly enlarged..... More