Search Results: Children's Books from Sumner & Stillman

1882. London: George Routledge and Sons, n.d.[1882]. Original glazed pictorial boards with yellow cloth spine. This was the first of Kate Greenaway's fourteen little almanacks -- probably published actually in late 1882. There are 23 pages of charming illustrations in color. This is a very good-plus copy (minor cover soil and rubbing, bookplate on front endpaper). Birmingham G.49.

1885. London: George Routledge & Sons, n.d.[1885]. Original white morocco-grain boards pictorially decorated in gilt and bordered in dark blue, all edges gilt. This was the fourth of the fourteen Greenaway almanacks, and in­cludes 23 pages bearing her color illustrations. This copy is in the special binding of imitation-morocco white boards, with illustration and lettering in gilt and with border in dark blue. This is a near-fine copy, with very minor cover soil. Birmingham G.52.

1890. [London:] George Routledge & Sons, n.d.[1890]. Original white pictorial boards with yellow cloth spine. This was the ninth of the fourteen almanacks by Kate Greenaway, in the standard binding of white pictorial boards showing a woman with three children, within a border of leaves. There are 22 pages bearing Greenaway illustrations in color. This is a very good-plus copy (very minor soil, one small chip out of the yellow cloth spine, bookplate). Birmingham G.57.

1917. London: Frederick Warne and Co., n.d. [1917]. Original green-grey boards lettered in red, with front cover pictorial onlay. First Edition, first or second printing (indistinguishable from each other) -- but in later-state binding. Most of these rhymes are Beatrix Potter's own, but also included is "You know the old woman who lived in a shoe?". She first did illustrations for that rhyme as early as 1893, and she and Warne planned a volume of illustrated verse soon after PETER RABBIT made such a hit in 1901-1902. However it kept getting set aside for other volumes, and then Norman Warne died in 1905, and the project was dropped for a dozen years -- when in 1917 Fruing Warne asked her for another story and she did not have one. (Five years later there would be another volume of rhymes, CECILY PARSLEY'S NURSERY RHYMES.) The first two APPLEY DAPPLY printings came out in October and November 1917; the third printing did not come out until 1919-1920. Though all three are undated, the third is… Read More

1885. [a handsome copy] London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1885. Original blue cloth, beveled. First Edition, first printing (which consisted of 1000 copies). Stevenson began writing these verses as early as 1881: supposedly after perusing through Kate Greenaway's BIRTHDAY BOOK FOR CHILDREN, he observed "These are rather nice rhymes, and I don't think they will be difficult to do," and then proceeded to try his hand at them. It is hard to believe that the author of DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE and THE BODY-SNATCHER also wrote these sprightly juvenile rhymes, voiced as if by a child. The book is dedicated to Alison Cunningham, "Cummy," his childhood nurse-maid. The spine lettering of this copy is the less-encountered variant (no known precedence): the apostrophe is NOT shaped like the digit "7", and the word "OF" is in a smaller font than the word "A". The top edge of the pages is gilded, with the other edges uncut, which is the usual primary state. Inside, this copy does NOT have the ink-stamp "Printed in… Read More

1854. Boston: Jenks, Hickling & Swan, 1854. Original blind-stamped dark brown cloth with gilt-decorated spines. Early American edition, just possibly the first complete one. Since Harper published the two volumes of its edition separately in March 1853 and in March 1854 (so dated on the title pages), it is considered to be the first American edition. The date in 1854 when these two Boston volumes were published is unknown, so it is possible that this two-volume Boston edition came out earlier in 1854 than Harper's second volume. Jenks Hickling & Swan was a very "fluid" enterprise at the time, such that their 1856 and 1857 two-volumes-in-one printings would be by Hickling Swan & Brown, and their 1861 two-in-one printing would be by Swan Brewer & Tileston. This set is in very good-plus condition (a few small holes in the cloth, mainly at extremities or at joints); the gilt on the spines is unusually bright. Smith pp 116-119; Carr (UTexas) B500 (in blue cloth); not cited by Podeschi. Provenance: both… Read More

1883. Illustrated. London: Griffith & Farran, 1883. 32 pp ads dated Sept 1883. Original pictorial brown cloth. First Edition of this early Henty boys' tale taking place during the English Civil War. According to Newbolt (and to the printer's code on the title verso), 3000 copies were initially printed (in August 1882, though dated 1883); this copy has one of the earliest states of the ad catalogue (dated Sept 1883 -- there are some copies with ads dated May 1882, though that was several months before actual publication). This copy does have the early binding state -- without beveled edges on the boards or gilt edges on the leaves. It also has the p. 118 illustration in the first state -- located at that page, rather than where it belongs opposite p. 106; according to Newbolt, most copies with the 1883 ads have this illustration properly relocated. Condition is close to fine, with scarcely any wear, and with the original peach endpapers still intact. The book is a little askew, which is typically the… Read More

1866. Illustrated by F.O.C. Darley and Thomas Nast. New York: James O'Kane, 1866. 2 pp undated ads. Original green cloth, beveled. First Edition of this children's classic. Hans and his sister Gretel want to win the annual ice-skating race on the canals of Holland, but cannot afford proper skates -- and must also find the money for an operation for their father, who is an invalid... Also, as a tale-within-a-tale, this book includes the story of the little boy who puts his finger in a hole in a leaking dike and keeps it there all through the cold night, until adults arrive in the morning to make the necessary repairs. Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge became a widow at the age of 27 when her husband died in 1858, and turned to the field of literature to support herself and their two young sons. Mrs. Dodge was recognized for many years as the foremost American writer of juvenile stories of her time. Her greatest success was with her story of Dutch children, HANS BRINKER, published in 1865 [but dated 1866],… Read More

1849. A Fancy for Christmas-Time. New York: Harper & Brothers, n.d. [1849]. 2 pp undated ads. Original brown printed wrappers. First American Edition of Dickens's fifth and last Christmas book; there had been no late-1847 Christmas book, as Dickens had then been busy with DOMBEY AND SON. Though undated, this Harper edition in wrappers came out on January 6, 1849; this is earlier in January than was the case for their four previous Christmas books, and for good reason: in December Harper had paid Dickens five pounds for advance sheets -- the first amount an American publisher paid Dickens for a Christmas book. With the earlier four books, several American publishers leapt at the chance to be first; however, for this one, since Harper had a head-start, no other American publisher bothered to make the effort. In this copy, the (inside and outside) wrapper ads are the primary ones cited by Smith; the terminal ad leaf (pp [35-36]) has "Valuable Geographic Works" (Smith's state "c") on the recto, and… Read More

1928. With Decorations by Ernest H. Shepard. London: Methuen & Co., (1928). Original pink cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, with dust jacket. First Edition of this the fourth and last Milne/Shepard collaboration (and the second of them in prose, after WINNIE THE POOH). This is also the book in which Tigger first makes an appearance. Tales include "A House is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore," "Tigger Comes to the Forest and has Breakfast" (Tigger's first appearance in a book), "Piglet does a Very Grand Thing" and "Christopher Robin and Pooh come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There." This is a remarkably fine, bright volume; the dust jacket is just about fine as well (a couple of faint edge-bumps but essentially no soil or wear); there is the remnant of a bookseller sticker at the bottom of the front flap). NCBEL IV 671. Housed in a morocco-backed slipcase with inner chemise.

1894. Decorated by J. Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E. New York: The Century Co., 1894. Original olive-green cloth decorated in gilt. First American Edition, published on the same day (May 22nd) as the English edition. Many of the illustrations are by John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father. This book and THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK, along with KIM and JUST SO STORIES, constitute Kipling's best-loved work: For there is a unique magic in the JUNGLE BOOKs from the moment the infant Mowgli enters the wolf's lair, and the moonlight is blacked out at the mouth of the cave by the great head of the tiger Shere Khan, and his roar fills it with thunder. There is magic too in the jungle, so glowingly portrayed, with its danger-haunted thickets, and the monkeys threading its frail liana ways, the enchanted land of which Mowgli is to become the master; and in the animals who are his friends and mentors -- Bagheera, the sleek and terrible panther; Baloo, the wise old bear; Hathi, the elephant; Kaa, the gigantic python who… Read More

1935. Racine, Wisconsin: Artists and Writers Guild, n.d. [ca 1935]. Original color-pictorial spiral-bound flexible card covers. First Artists & Writers edition (spiral-bound) of what many consider to be Maxfield Parrish's ultimate achievement in book form. The oversize (12" x 10") plates, in luminous color, are magnificent. This A&W edition is often described as having been published in 1925, because the book's only date, is where it reads "Copyright 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons." However, this Artists and Writers edition was published a whole decade later -- in 1935-1936, and in Poughkeepsie not in Racine. The original (first) edition was indeed published by Scribner in 1925 -- a regular hardbound book. Western Printing Company of Racine Wisconsin had acquired Whitman Publishing in 1916, to issue inexpensive juvenile books; in the early 1930s, Western also acquired Artists and Writers Guild of Poughkeepsie, New York -- not a "guild" at all, but a printer then specializing in playing cards and… Read More

1903. An Awful Warning to Bad Babas. By the Author of "Little Black Mingo" and "Little Black Quibba." London: James Nisbet & Co., 1903. Original light olive cloth illustrated in black and printed in red. First Edition of the most unusual, and one of the least-known, of Helen Bannerman's eight small-format books for children. Five of the eight were about "black" children (though they were really about native Tamils in the region of southern India where Helen Bannerman lived) -- usually outwitting fierce animals that threatened them: LITTLE BLACK SAMBO (1899), LITTLE BLACK MINGO (1901), LITTLE BLACK QUIBBA (1902), LITTLE BLACK QUASHA (1908) and LITTLE BLACK BOBTAIL (1909). Her other three were this one, PAT AND THE SPIDER (1905) and THE TEASING MONKEY (1907). LITTLE DEGCHIE-HEAD (a "degchie" is a large handle-less pot frequently used in Indian cuisine) is about a little (white) girl named Mary who despite warnings from her mother, cannot resist poking at fires; one day she falls into the fire and… Read More

1912. London: Ernest Nister, n.d. [1912]. Original color-pictorial paper-covered boards with blue-grey cloth spine. Early appearance of this Henty tale, in this Nister book for children, printed in Bavaria. Nister had already included "Little Mistress Valentia" in his IN THE CHIMNEY CORNER of 1899 and in his Holiday Annual of 1905; this is its third appearance. Very curiously for an author then so famous, Henty's name does not appear on the title page -- though four other contributors do, including G. Manville Fenn and L. T. Meade. This copy does not have ads printed on the rear endpaper (some do -- no known priority); those ads cite the 25th Nister's Holiday Annual, which came out in late 1912 -- thus dating this volume. This is a very good-plus copy, with less than the usual amount of soil and edge-wear. PASTIME TALES is generally regarded as one of the scarcest of Henty's Nister appearances -- often overlooked, due to there being no hint of him on the binding or title page. Newbolt 169.1… Read More

1895. Herford, Oliver. Illustrated by Oliver Herford. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895. Original tan cloth pictorially decorated in green and dark brown, page edges green. First Edition, first printing (with the date 1895 appearing on the front of the title page) -- of this sequel to LITTLE MR. THIMBLEFINGER: the same three children (Buster John, Sweetest Susan and Drusilla) have further adventures with the animals in Mr. Thimblefinger's "queer country." Included are 25 illustrations by Oliver Herford. This is a fine, clean copy (slight cracking of one endpaper) -- quite unusual for this light-colored cloth. Blanck 7132. Provenance: bookplate of the Estelle Doheny Collection of American Literature (multiple sales in 1987-1989).

1893. A Collection of Short Original Stories for Children. London: Skeffington and Son, 1893. Original light blue paper-covered boards decorated in white, pink, green and black. First Edition of this anthology of 18 "short original stories for children" by 13 different authors of the day -- including G. A. Henty ("The Wreckers of Pendarven"); others include L.T. Meade, Mrs. Molesworth and Mabel Wotton. It is a very delicate book, because it was bound in paper-covered boards rather than in cloth. This copy is in very good condition, the main flaw being that the volume has been re-backed in similarly-light-blue cloth, with most of the original spine laid back down; the original light brown patterned endpapers are covered with later blue-patterned ones. Newbolt 165.1.

1935. Told for Children by Russell Thorndike. London & New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, n.d.[1930s?]. Original color pictorial wrappers. Each of these is a pocket-sized abridgement, for children, of a Charles Dickens novel or character -- condensed into a booklet of just 16 leaves (the title page is on the inside rear cover, there are six full-page illustrations, and the final page 33 is on the inside rear cover -- so the text occupies only 27 pages). The front and rear cover have the same color illustration. A little light foxing, but all three are in fine condition. Housed together in a simple hard-board folder with typed label.

1899. Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1899. Original olive green cloth pictorially decorated in black and red. First Edition, English issue, of this collection of fourteen tales -- including a few about Brer Rabbit and friends. This is a children's story book in the same general format as the four books Harris had collaborated on with Oliver Herford a few years earlier, but instead illustrated by E. Boyd Smith (who had just illustrated Harris's TALES OF THE HOME FOLKS). These are Houghton Mifflin sheets, printed in Cambridge Massachusetts, but with a Constable title page for the English market. This is a very good-plus copy (some soil on the blank rear cover, otherwise fine). See Blanck 7142.

1886. [illustrated by Kate Greenaway] London: Chatto and Windus, n.d. [1886]. Original olive linen with color pictorial covers, all page edges red. First Edition of this 58-page children's fantasy tale that includes 28 color illustrations by Kate Greenaway. There is a very similar American edition, actually printed and bound in the U.K. at the same time as this edition, with a Houghton Mifflin title page that bears the date 1887. This copy is in what Blanck calls "binding C(B?)" -- pictorial olive linen, page edges stained red, white endpapers; binding A with gilt page edges is believed to have been the first, or certainly the most expensive, but the order of the other two is unknown. It is in remarkably fine condition, without soil or wear -- and is rather uncommon thus. Blanck 7337 (binding "C(B?)").

1895. Kipling, J. Lockwood. With Illustrations by J. Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E. London: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 2 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, all page edges gilt. First English Edition (published three days after the American) of the sequel to THE JUNGLE BOOK, which had been published the year before. It continues with more tales of Mowgli that exemplify "The Laws of the Jungle" -- with illustrations by John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father. This was the second of the four Kipling gift books bound similarly by Macmillan, with SOLDIER TALES and CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS coming out the following two years respectively. This is an attractive, near-fine copy (volume slightly askew, spine gilt less than bright, but no foxing and essentially no wear); the front flyleaf bears an inked "Xmas 1895" signature. Richards A85; Stewart 132.