Where the Wild Things Are. by SENDAK, Maurice - 1963

New York: Harper & Row,, 1963. A triumph of children's story telling, in correct first issue jacket Oblong quarto. Original cloth-backed pictorial paper boards. With the Sendak-designed dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by Sendak. A fine copy, in very good, lightly toned jacket, price-clipped, short closed tears around head of spine panel, yet still a nice, unrestored example. First edition, first printing, first issue. Criticized at the time of publication for its darker elements, Where the Wild Things Are was soon acclaimed as a triumph of children's storytelling and book design; it has remained a classic of 20th-century children's literature, and was adapted into a film in 2009. There were multiple issues of the first edition, but this copy is the earliest, distinguished by the Library of Congress number 63-21253 to the title page, the codes 40-80 and 1163 to the front flap, and the absence on the rear flap of the mention of the Caldecott Award bestowed upon the book on publication - the winning of such a prestigious prize compelled the publishers to recall the entire edition and change the text on the dust jacket to include the achievement. Hanrahan A58; Grolier Club, One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature, 97.