The current method of pricing collectible books for sale is more a learned art than a science. The world of collectible books is quite large and very diverse. Everything from modern first editions to pre-1500 incunabula are sold and collected. Because of the diversity among collectible types, one pricing methodology does not work for all.

Auction Records

For books worth over $1000, auction records are a beginning point for collectors and booksellers. Book auction records go back for over a century, and serious collectors, and sellers of serious works, have access to such. The auction records will provide a reference point, from which years of experience will allow the bookseller to extrapolate to present day value. (A lot said in the last sentence – it is beyond the scope of this article to outline the complexity of pricing antiquarian books which rely on auction records as the primary means of valuation.)

The vast majority of collectible books sold have never fallen under the gavel of a reputable auction house. Why? In general, it’s not economical for the buyer, seller, or auction house to sell $50 books. Medium priced books cannot support the overhead costs necessary to catalog and sell the book at auction.

Internet Records & Catalogs

Instead, booksellers will poll the internet sources for comparable books, then leverage their experience to set the asking price. Often, the experienced bookseller will have accumulated a library of bookseller catalogs over the years to use as additional reference.

For books not offered for sale on the internet or in a catalog, the bookseller will try to find books of comparable stature (authorship, year, condition, etc…), then use their experience to set the asking price.

Book Pricing in Today’s Collectible Children’s Market

In many cases, the children’s bookseller will rely on their own experiences to set an asking price on a first edition collectible book. They have either sold the book in the past or have been witness to a similar book being offered for sale. In most cases, the bookseller does not have past experience with a book.

Aleph-Bet and Jo-Ann Reisler are the two booksellers considered by many to be the backbone for pricing collectible children’s books in today’s market. Page Books, Garcia-Garst, Peter Harrington, Charles Agvent, David Brass, E.M. Maurice, are among a group of other reputable children’s booksellers.

When a bookseller references a first edition book being offered by one of the prestige children’s booksellers, they will often adjust their asking price for a similar book, taking into consideration the market in which they operate.

In today’s bookselling market on the internet, there is more garbage than jewels being offered for sale. What might be described as a first edition is often not the case. The internet can be treacherous grounds for the inexperenced book collector and for the inexperienced bookseller.

When looking up a book, the bookseller has to wade through a lot of material, which clouds the picture, in order to find legitimate offerings. It’s easier said than done.

The bookseller’s experience accounts for everything when determining the asking price for a collectible first edition book. Pricing the book is much more an art than a science.

Pricing Books for the Children’s Picturebook Price Guide

We had to price 23,000 books for the Children’s Picturebook Price Guide. Less than 200 of the books would have a viable auction record, of which, less than 100 were current.

Over the course of a year, we used the methodology outlined above to price 10,000 or so books, using catalogs and internet searches. Most of the books in the price guide were not being offered for sale, and there were no catalog records. We had to extrapolate the market value.

Could we mathematically calculate the price of a collectible first edition children’s book? Sounds far-fetched, but an intriguing idea. What might be some parameters?

The age of the book or year of publication quickly comes to mind. What else helps to determine the market price of a first edition book? What does the bookseller think through when valuing a book? Scarcity? Yes, scarcity would be a key consideration.

What else?

For children’s picturebooks, it would be a combination of elements. Key would be who is the illustrator, with a close second being who is the author. Awards garnered by the book, it’s illustrator or author would also be a big factor. Popularity of the book, defined as being a combination of years in print, copies sold, and cross-over into pop culture. All of these factors affect the demand for a first edition book. Let’s call this the ‘collectibility’ of the book.

Some premises:

Common 1953 book       <less valuable<        Less common 1953 book

Common 1953 book       <less valuable<        Common, more desirable 1953 book

Common 1953 book       <less valuable<        Common 1943 book

Prices Reflecting The Market

We attempted to make the prices in our guide reflective of the market. With a database of 23,000 titles concentrated into a narrow field, we thought we could create a formula to calculate a first edition picturebook's value.

We researched the price of over 10,000 books and inserted this market price into the database. The objective of the formula was to minimize the total error of the calculated price versus the researched market value across this population of 10,000 books. By minimizing the total error, the formulaic value of the other 13,000 books should be mathmatically accurate.

Age, Scarcity, & Collectibility

The formula has three key components, one based upon age, one based upon scarcity, and one based upon collectibility of the book. We fixed the books’ condition as a constant.

The thought behind the age factor is, all other things being equal (i.e. scarcity & collectibility are the same), an older book has more market value than a newer book.

You can see this play out in any of the illustrator listings in the price guide. For example, an older first edition Louis Slobodkin book has more market value than a newer first edition Louis Slobodkin book, all other things being equal.

For each of the 23,000 books, we seeded the database with a mid-range scarcity & collectibility factor. Then we adjusted each illustrator's collectibility factor. Then we adjusted each book's collectibility factor. This was tedious, and wrought with passionate discussion about minutae. Then repeat. Then repeat. 23,000 titles. Then we did the same process for the scarcity factor. Our objective was to minimize the calculated price as compared to the current market price.

Each book's collectibility factor was impacted by the illustrator, awards garnered, author, illustrator/author's first book, first authored book by an illustrator, etc…. Obviously, the 'normal' first edition Dr. Seuss or Maurice Sendak book would have more collectibility than the 'normal' Michael Hague book. Picturebooks authored by Margeret Wise Brown or Jane Yolen, and other desirable authors consistently increased the collectibility factor of a book. An illustrator's franchise books impacted the collectibility. Books in a series increased the collectibility. And so forth.

Adjusting the Formula

For months we tried a polynomial type formula, but the formula did not react to our satisfaction. So we tried an exponential type formula, where the collectibility variable and the scarcity variable were raised to a fractional power. This seemed to work better. We fiddled and fiddled with the fractional powers until the total error against the 10,000 market values we researched was minimized. We spent nine months working on the formula.

So, the end result is, every price you see in our price guide is calculated by a formula. We kid you not. (The published prices are rounded to whole dollar amounts).

Obviously this method could not work for a general collection of books. It only applies because our database is confined to such a narrow field. Obviously there are going to be some errors (for example, we did not increase a book's collectibility factor appropriately due to the oversight of a well collected author). Obviously we need to make adjustments to Curious George and The Little House, Make Way For Ducklings, and so forth. The nice thing is, adjustments across the 23,000 titles is now relatively painless.

We are in the process of researching 10,000+ market prices for the next edition of the price guide. It's tedious, but needs to be done. Then we will comb through the database again and again and again. And again, until the calculated price is representative of the market price.

Using this methodology, we believe the price guide prices are more science than art, and more representative of an illustrator’s market value than a rule-of-thumb estimate.

MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS
Robert McCloskey     
Book Price: US$ 9000.00

Description: Good+ in Very good dust jacket.

Looks like this copy was possibly used for review in a magazine or newspaper, as one page towards the center has been exacto knifed out, and at the top there is typewriter print "Sunday Book Page 2 cols ducks". The page was then taped back in with 3 small pieces of clear (now browned) tape on one side, and one long piece of clear (now browned) tape on the other side. Restoration work could probably fix it, but I have not confirmed that. Else the book would be very good.

The pages are clean and complete, binding is strong. Light shelfwear, previous owner name neatly inside front cover. The dust jacket has light shelfwear, a little fading at very edge, a couple tiny edgetears and light edgechips. A solid very good.

Original price of 2.00 is intact on flap. No medal, of course. First printing with "First Published August 1941" and no other printings listed. Rear flap is a write up of Lentil, and about the author. Potentially the scarcest of the Caldecott winners. 9X12. Illustrated by Robert McCloskey. Bookseller Inventory # 6838

The book is being offered via ABE, click here. 

2008 Medal Winner

The 2008 Caldecott Medal winner is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

From an opening shot of the full moon setting over an awakening Paris in 1931, this tale casts a new light on the picture book form. Hugo is a young orphan secretly living in the walls of a train station where he labors to complete a mysterious invention left by his father. In a work of more than 500 pages, the suspenseful text and wordless double-page spreads narrate the tale in turns. Neither words nor pictures alone tell this story, which is filled with cinematic intrigue. Black & white pencil illustrations evoke the flickering images of the silent films to which the book pays homage.

Hugo Cabret winning the Caldecott is very surprising - we thought it might win the Newbery, never even considered a 500 page book winning, in light of the Caldecott's key qualifying criteria:

"The Medal shall be awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year. There are no limitations as to the character of the picture book except that the illustrations be original work."

It takes the loosest interpretation of 'picture book' for Hugo Cabret to qualify.

From Brian Selznick:

"My new book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, is a 550 page novel in words and pictures. But unlike most novels, the images in my new book don't just illustrate the story; they help tell it. I've used the lessons I learned from Remy Charlip and other masters of the picture book to create something that is not a exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things."

Selznick even calls it a "novel in words and pictures".

From Publisher's Weekly:

Booksellers React to Top Children’s Prizes
By Diane Roback -- Publishers Weekly, 1/14/2008 4:30:00 PM

"Several booksellers praised the Caldecott committee for “pushing the envelope” by awarding the medal for the year’s most distinguished picture book to The Invention of Hugo Cabret, an 533-page illustrated novel—it’s the first time that the Caldecott has ever been given to a novel.

Elizabeth Bluemle, co-owner of Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., predicted “There will be a lot of discussion as to whether it’s a true Caldecott winner. It’s not a picture book in the way that we like to think of a picture book, but the argument can be made that it works as a picture book, in that the words and art work together. It does break new ground in how a book is made, and I think it’s great that it was recognized.”

“We all love Hugo Cabret,” said Laura Moline, manager of Adventures for Kids in Ventura, Calif. “We’ve sold lots of copies for all different ages. I was wondering if a book could win the Caldecott and the Newbery in the same year—that’s what we thought might happen. It’s so much an illustrated book and it’s also so much a novel. It’s something different; it’s something new.”

Several librarians phoned Valerie Koehler, owner of Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop, on Monday, asking her, “Can you believe they picked a novel for the Caldecott? Can you do that?” Her response? “As long as it fits their parameters, as an illustrated book, that’s fine. It’s thrilling when [the winner] is something we can get behind."

2008 Honor Books

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railrod by illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine (Scholastic)

Inspired by an antique lithograph, Kadir Nelson has created dramatically luminous illustrations that portray Henry “Box” Brown's ingenious design to ship himself in a box from slavery to freedom.

First the Egg, written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)

Laura Vaccaro Seeger's innovative concept book on transformations, First the Egg uses strategically placed die-cuts to provide an astonishing visual explication of the word “then.” Her richly textured brushstrokes creatively reveal the process of metamorphosis for young readers.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, written and illustrated by Peter Sís (Farrar/Frances Foster)

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, a graphic memoir of Sís's youth in Prague, brilliantly weds artistic and design choices to content: tight little panels with officious lines and red punctuation; full-bleed line-and-watercolor spreads of nightmares and dreams; color and absence of color.

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, written and illustrated Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Willems sets the stage for one of the most dramatic double-paged spreads in picture-book history in Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. Masterful photo collages take Trixie and her daddy through their now-familiar Brooklyn neighborhood to the Pre-K class where Trixie discovers that her beloved Knuffle Bunny is not “so one-of-a-kind anymore.”

The Newbery and Caldecott Medals and Honor Book seals are property of the American Library Association and cannot be used in any form or reproduced without permission of the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.

Based upon our experience, there are fewer key collectible picturebooks on the online market than a year ago, continuing a trend we have seen over the past couple of years.

Try a search on any of the metasearch book finding websites, such as ABEBooks, Addall, Bookfinder, or the ABAA, for first edition Caldecott Medal books, or Beginner Books, or I Can Read Books, or Seuss books. Sort the results from high price to low price (the thought being the high priced books would most likely be first editions), and see how many books turn up. The results will show that many first edition books are not currently being offered for sale.

Money Can’t Buy Everything

We publish a search for the first twenty Caldecott Medal books three or four times a year (we perform the search monthly, and publish it less frequently). We last published the survey in February, and the results were a bit eye opening.

For the first twenty Caldecott Medal books, in first edition format, seven of the titles were not being offered for sale! We found only 27 individual copies for sale, with four copies of 1952 winner The Biggest Bear being offered (several incorrectly I suspect, since the $2.75 price on the DJ flap is required to identify a true first printing).

If one were to extend the search to cover all of the seventy Caldecott Medal books, perhaps as many as 15-to-20 would not be for sale on the market as first edition books.

In a world in which money can buy nearly everything, it could not buy a complete set of first edition Caldecott Medal books!

Given the proper monetary motivation, a book scout could probably find and purchase a complete set of first edition Caldecott Medal books. Probably. It would take upwards of a year, even for the well connected book scout, and cost $60-to-$80,000 (in the Children’s Picturebook Price Guide, we value the set of first edition Caldecott Medal books at $52,000 in Very Good plus condition).

Somewhere, yet Nowhere: Other Key Children’s Books

Try searching for key early franchise books from such staples as Curious George, or Madeline, Harold and the Purple Crayon, or Babar. The first edition books are not available. A key example is a first edition Curious George. One has recently surfaced for sale, and will be auctioned in July by PBA Galleries. It is very likely to reach $10,000, however some have thought as high as $20,000! There are no auction records for a first edition Curious George, and it’s been seven years since one has surfaced for sale.

Try searching for specific illustrator books, such as Marjorie Flack or Robert McCloskey, or Jean de Brunhoff, or Wanda Gag, or Virginia Lee Burton, or Roger Duvoisin, or Hardie Gramatky, or Lois Lenski, or the d’Aulaire’s, Petersham’s, or Hader’s. The more common first edition books are found for sale, however the scarcer editions are not surfacing on a regular basis, if at all.

The first edition books exist, however they exist somewhere in collector’s bookshelves, and are nowhere to be found in booksellers’ inventory.

As Values Increase, Supply Will Increase

Market values will have to rise in order for the supply of key first edition books to surface. This seems counterintuitive. Key first edition books have been absorbed by collectors, or could be in bookseller’s inventory, yet are not surfacing for sale. As prices in the market rise, some of these books will become available for sale.

We’ve seen a slight increase in values since our initial price guide was published, and the next edition (due in early 2008) will reflect this marginal increase. However, the price guide will only reflect the prices in the market, and cannot be anticipatory of where prices might escalate.

As the bookselling public becomes better informed of the values of key children’s books, and the knowledge slowly seaps into the conscious of the general population, more first edition books will surface. We hope.

Next: State of The Hobby, Part III: The New Class of Bookselling Masses

Earlier we posted a column titled “What Books To Collect,” which provided several categories of books or illustrators for various economic levels of collecting. Today and over the next couple of posts, we would like to discuss the state of the children’s picturebook collecting hobby, and provide some background information on the current market place.

A Hobby In It’s Infancy

The hobby of collecting first edition contemporary picturebooks is in it’s infancy. In support of this claim:

1.   There are only a handful of collectible children’s bookselling specialists, and many concentrate their efforts on older antiquarian material.

2.   The number of children’s book collectors today is relatively small, as compared to the number we anticipate will participate in the future.

3.   The majority of the adult population do not consider first edition children’s picturebooks to have substantial monetary value. The hobby is somewhat analogous to comic books and baseball cards during the infancy of the respective hobbies.

·         Just twenty years ago people were throwing away vintage baseball cards because there was no public perception of value. Today, many baseball cards from the 1950’s and 1960’s are worth thousands of dollars. (Note: Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps baseball card is valued at $15,000- $20,000.)

·         Just thirty years ago you could find discarded comic books from the 1940’s for sale for a pittance in used books and thrift stores, because there was no public perception of value. Today, Superman and Batman comic books from the 1940’s are worth tens of thousands; early Spiderman comics from the 1960’s are worth thousands (Note: Action #1, the 1937 first appearance of Superman. Is valued in the hundreds of thousands.)

I am not suggesting the value of first edition children’s picturebooks will reach the astonomical prices of rare comic books; only presenting the above as somewhat analogous situations. Hyperbole and I are not usually compatible.

4.   The majority of elementary school teachers and librarians, the group closest to the hobby, do not consider children’s picturebooks to have substantial monetary value. Not only are elementary school teachers and librarians the closest to the hobby, their reading recommendations and ‘prescriptions’ to children and parents, gained from knowledge, experience, and collegial associations, determine the long-term publication success of many of the books the hobby defines to be collectibles.

5.   The current contemporary children’s picturebook market is very Seuss-, Sendak-, and Caldecott-centric, the Big Three. The high market value of their first editions has seeped into the knowledge base of general bookselling (i.e. not limited to children’s books), therefore many, many booksellers are aware and on the lookout for examples. However the non-specialist children’s booksellers do not get much deeper than the aforementioned Big Three.

Adolescence, The Next Phase

When one takes a bird’s eye view of the current state, I think the hobby will eventually place greater emphasis on 'years-in-print' and 'copies sold' as measures of collectibility and desireability. The important collectible picturebooks are those which have stayed in print, unadulterated, for decades.

Consider Madeline, in print for 70 years, and still being read by today’s children. How many other ‘things’ are enjoyed, unchanged, seventy years after the original publication? A quick glance at Publisher’s Weekly list of all-time bestselling children’s books will show a plethora of classics which have sold millions of copies, been read to or read by tens of millions of children, and unchanged after decades.

·         Many of the books are ‘A’ list books, however many are not. Books like Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish, or Margret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, or Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog. Go!, or Laura Numeroff’s If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, or Sam McBratney’s Guess How Much I Love You?, or Jan Brett’s The Mitten, or Janell Cannon’s Stelleluna, or Marc Brown’s Arthur Goes To School. And so forth.

·         Each of these books are underappreciated in the current state of the hobby – books barely considered collectibles, and then by only a handful of collectors and booksellers. Yet, I would wager, each of these books will be in print for decades hence, to be enjoyed by millons of more children and parents in the years to come. What is the future worth of these first editions?

The Astute Collector and The Not-So-Smart Hobby

Several weeks ago we posted a column on ‘Factors Affecting Collectibility,’ identifying six key factors which impact the desireablity and value of a children’s picturebook. These factors are our personally developed list of factors, and as yet have not been vetted within the hobby. They are, how shall we say, in development.

The astute collector can leverage this period of development by focusing on books not yet held in high regard within the collectible picturebook market. What can you do? Develop your own list of factors, factors currently under weighted in the market, and target those books and types of books (the prerequisite being the books are appealing to your personally).

Currently, in its state of infancy, i.e. disjointed development, the collective intelligence of the ‘hobby’ is not nearly as smart as the astute collector. As more is written within the hobby, and knowledge shared, this gap will narrow, quickly, as the hobby matures. The collective intelligence of the children’s picturebook market will overtake that of the individual collector. But that is not today.

Next: State of The Hobby, Part II: Where Have All The Books Gone?

A first edition copy of The Little House, the 1943 Caldecott Medal winning book, is coming up for auction on July 12, 2007 at PBA Galleries.

The first edition The Little House is very difficult to find, and some have estimated the book will sell for close to $10,000. The Children's Picturebook Price Guide estimates The Little House to be valued at $5,000 in Very Good condition. The first edition book being auctioned is in Fine condition, with a Fine dust jacket, so is likely to bring quite a bit more.

Written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1942, The Little House first edition books do not surface for sale very often. There are currently none on the market.

The photographs being displayed on this page are from the actual book being auctioned.

The July 12, 2007 PBA Galleries auction includes a rare first edition Curious George, along with a first edition The Gremlins, and a a first edition Pumpkin Moonshine.

The Little House Background

From the University of Oregon's Exhibit on Children's Literature:

The Little House is the story of a house that is swallowed up by a growing city but is rescued in the end by being moved to the country. Like the machine-heroines in her other books, the house has human characteristics and feelings such as curiosity, loneliness, fear, and happiness--feelings with which children can identify.

Upon receiving the [Caldecott Medal], Burton said, "In [my] creative collaboration with children I have learned several things. First, one must never 'write down' to children. They sense adult condescension in an instant, and they turn away from it. Moreover, their perception is clear and sharp ... every detail, no matter how small or unimportant, must possess intrinsic interest and significance and must, at the same time, fit into the big design of the book."

From the School Library Journal:

Accolades for The Little House came early and have continued over the years. Writing in the New York Times in 1942, reviewer Anne Eaton mentioned its "lively imagination and genuine power"; the 1943 Caldecott committee selected it as the "most distinguished book of the year"; librarian Anne Carroll Moore, known for her tough criticism, praised it as a "honest-to-goodness picture book"; and it has subsequently appeared on several "best of the century" lists.

Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Anne Tyler, in a 1986 essay in the New York Times , said that The Little House introduced her to "the realization of the losses that the passage of time can bring." As a child, she liked the book's tone—"quiet but rhythmic"; as an adult, the illustrations "spelled out for me all the successive stages [of time]; the sun rises and sets across one entire page and a whole month of moons wheel across another."

Prior to The Little House, Burton had written and illustrated Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel in 1939, another book that is now considered a children's classic (and also very difficult to come by in a first edition book). She also won a Caldecott Honor award in 1948 for Song of Robin.

In 1952, Maybelle, The Cable Car was published, based upon memories of her childhood in San Francisco, and helped to preserve the cable car in the city. In 1967 Burton donated the original artwork for Maybelle, The Cable Car to the San Francisco Public Library. Virginia Lee Burton died in 1968.

First Edition Identification - Book

The key identifying point is the '1942' on the title page, and no additional printings stated on the copyright page.

First Edition Identification - DJ

The key identifying point is the '$1.75' price on the front DJ flap.

A first edition copy of Pumpkin Moonshine, Tasha Tudor's first book, is coming up for auction on July 12, 2007 at PBA Galleries.

Published by Oxford University Press in 1938, Pumpkin Moonshine first edition books do not surface for sale very often. There is currently only one first edition book with dust jacket on the market. The Children's Picturebook Price Guide estimates Pumpkin Moonshine to be valued at over $3,000 in Very Good condition. The first edition book being auctioned is in Near Fine condition, with a Very Good + dust jacket.

The photographs being displayed on this page are from the actual book being auctioned.

The July 12, 2007 PBA Galleries auction includes a rare first edition Curious George, along with a first edition The Little House, and a a first edition The Gremlins.

Pumpkin Moonshine Background

From the Women Children's Book Illustrators:

Pumpkin Moonshine published in 1938, was done as a gift for a young niece. The "dummy" book she took to editor Eunice Blake at Oxford University Press was bound in calico cloth. The publishers liked the look so well they produced Tudor's first five books in a calico-look binding, leading collectors to refer to Pumpkin Moonshine, Alexander the Gander, Linsey Woolsey, Dorcas Porkus and Country Fair as her "calico books."

Having illustrated nearly one hundred books, Tasha Tudor is well known for her delicate watercolor and ink illustrations. Tudor's artwork is often compared to Kate Greenaway and Beatrix Potter, which is not too surprising when one considers her 19th century lifestyle.

She had four children, and the Tudor's emulated a nineteenth-century rural lifestyle, on farms in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. These homes often lacked electricity and running water. The Tudor's washed clothes by hand, learned to spin and weave, made bread from scratch, and decorated their homes with antique furniture. From her Tasha Tudor website:

Her home, though only 30 years old, feels as though it was built in the 1830's, her favorite time period. Seth Tudor, one of Tasha's four children, built her home using hand tools when Tasha moved to Vermont in the 1970's. Tasha Tudor lives among period antiques, using them in her daily life. She is quite adept at 'Heirloom Crafts', though she detests the term, including candle dipping, weaving, soap making, doll making and knitting. She lived without running water until her youngest child was five years old.

Tasha Tudor has received two Caldecott Honor Awards, in 1945 for Mother Goose, and again in 1957 for 1 Is One. Tasha Tudor also received the Regina Medal from the Catholic Library Association in 1971 for her contributions to children's literature. and an honorary doctorate from the University of Vermont.

First Edition Identification - Book

The key identifying point is no additional printings stated on the copyright page.

First Edition Identification - DJ

The key identifying point is the '$.75' price on the bottom of the front DJ flap.

A first edition copy of The Gremlins, the 1943 book written by Roald Dahl, is coming up for auction on July 12, 2007 at PBA Galleries.

A Walt Disney Production published by Random House in 1943, The Gremlins first edition books do not surface for sale very often. There are currently five first edition books with dust jacket on the market, ranging in price from $6000 to $2200, none of which are in as nice a condition as the book being offered. The first edition book being auctioned is in Near Fine condition, with a Near Fine dust jacket.

The photographs being displayed on this page are from the actual book being auctioned.

The July 12, 2007 PBA Galleries auction includes a rare first edition Curious George, along with a first edition The Little House, and a a first edition Pumpkin Moonshine.

The Gremlins Background

Roald Dahl served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot and he became a Wing Commander. In 1940 Dahl's plane was hit by a machine gun fire, and he was severely injured. He was rescued by a fellow pilot and took him six months to recover.

Dahl was sent to the U.S. as an air attache. while his outspoken style made him unpopular with his Air chiefs, it made him a favorite of the cocktail set. He was sent back to England, and is said to have been recruited by the British Secret Service by 'Intrepid,' aka William Stephenson, who was trying inspire sufficient public sympathy to enable Roosevelt to openly support Britain. Dahl was sent back to the U.S. with a promotion, much to the chagrin of the Air chiefs.

In 1943, Dahl wrote The Gremlins, a book for children about the hazards of being an RAF pilot. The Gremlins were little havoc causing creatures, behind any mishaps experienced by pilots and their machines. RAF insider jokes blamed The Gremlins for all the technical malfunctions in airplanes. Gremlin jokes were widely used by the RAF during the World War II and so got into popular culture as well..

From Disney Goes To War:

"Walt Disney planned to make a cartoon film version of The Gremlins. The film was never made, some say because of the difficult task of making loveable creatures who exist solely to destroy Allied airplanes. Disney actively tried to stop others from making Gremlin cartoons, however. "

Dahl's presence in Washington came to the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, who had been reading The Gremlins to her grandchildren. From Penguin Group Roald Dahl biography:

"Roald was never very keen on The Gremlins and didn’t really think of it as a children’s book. Nevertheless, it caught Eleanor Roosevelt’s eye and Roald became a not infrequent guest at the White House and FDR’s weekend retreat, Hyde Park. "

n 1953, Dahl married the actress Patricia Neal; two of his early children's books, James and the Giant Peach (1961) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) grew out of the bedtime stories he made up for their children. Both books have become children's classics, and turned into major motion pictures.

Elaine Moss, writing in the Times, called the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory "the funniest children's book I have read in years; not just funny but shot through with a zany pathos which touches the young heart."

Roald Dahl was an author and screenwriter whose awards include: Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1954, 1959, and 1980 for being a " master of the macabre and the suprise denouement"; Federation of Children's Book Groups Award, 1983; Whitbread Award, 1983; and World Fantasy Convention Award, 1983. Dahl once said:

"“I’m probably more pleased with my children’s books than with my adult short stories. Children’s books are harder to write. It’s tougher to keep a child interested because a child doesn’t have the concentration of an adult. The child knows the television is in the next room. It’s tough to hold a child, but it’s a lovely thing to try to do."

First Edition Identification - Book

The key identifying point is the '1942' on the title page, and no additional printings stated on the copyright page.

First Edition Identification - DJ

The key identifying point is the '$1.00' price on the front DJ flap.

Lot 272: Tiggers don't like honey

Lot 273: Pooh visiting in Owl's parlour

There are a couple of cases where the first printing book is indistinguishable from the book used in the 2^nd and 3^rd printing. In these cases, the book remained unchanged but the dust jacket was changed. Even so, these books still have collectibility (desirability) and value.

To help clarify, from the ABAA’s glossary:

Edition & Printing:

Edition includes the copies of a book or other printed material which originate from the same plates or setting of type. If 500 copies of a book are printed on Oct. 5 and 300 copies are printed from the same substantially unchanged plates on Dec. 10, all 800 copies are part of the same edition.

Printing: the copies of a book or other printed material which originate from the same press run or from the same plates or setting of type at one time.

In the example given for "Edition" above, the 500 copies would be the first printing and the 300 copies comprise the second printing.

First Edition:

All of the copies printed from the first setting of type; can include multiple printings if all are from the same setting of type. When book collectors use the term first edition, they are usually referring to the first printing and if there are different states or issues, the earliest of those.

In all of the Dr. Seuss books presented, the first edition book can be identified without the dust jackets. In nearly all cases, the book is also the first edition/first printing. In a couple of cases, the book is the first edition/’first or early’ printing.

We describe ‘Availability’ for each of the books. Most of the first edition books are difficult to find in the market. ‘Very difficult’ means one or no copies are usually available from the internet bookselling sites (ABE, Alibris, or Bookfinder). ‘Extremely difficult’ means a copy is not usually on the market, however might surface once or twice per year.

[Note: Where applicable, below, the book's title links to the identification points for the first edition book with dust jacket.]

It’s difficult to price first edition books without dust jackets. A first edition Mulberry Street with dust jacket might sell for $8000 in Very Good condition. The first edition book might sell in the $300-$600 range, so about 1/20^th the value of the first edition book with dust jacket.

The Cat In The Hat first edition book with dust jacket would have a market value of $4000 or so in Very Good condition. The first edition book might sell for $50 or so, since it is not too difficult to find.

Since the Dr. Seuss first edition books with dust jacket are too expensive for many children's book collectors, they might consider the first edition book without dust jacket as an alternative.

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street                  1937

Title page with ‘1937,’ Vanguard Press, and copyright page with no additional printings listed. Marco’s shorts are white on the front cover; on later printings Marco had blue shorts.

Availability: ‘White pants’ books are extremely difficult to find.

The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins                             1938

The front endpapers progress from large hats to small hats; the rear endpapers progress from small hats to large hats. On later printings the progression was reversed.

Availability: ‘Large-to-small hat’ books are extremely difficult to find.

The King's Stilts                                                              1939

Front cover with the yellow text ‘The King’s Stilts by Dr. Seuss’ on a red background covering nearly the entire area. On later printings, the title was reduced in size, with red text on a yellow cloth background.

Availability: ‘Large logo’ books are very difficult to find.

Horton Hatches The Egg  1940

States ‘First Printing’ on the copyright page.

Availability: ‘First Printing’ books are extremely difficult to find.

McElligot’s Pool                                                              1947

Front cover has fish with mouth open.

Availability: ‘Open mouth’ books are very difficult to find.

Thidwick: The Big-Hearted Moose                                    1948

The first edition boards are red. The book with red boards was used with the first printing dust jacket (with ‘starburst’) and the second printing dust jacket (sans ‘starburst’, ‘200/200’ on front flap).

Availability: Red boards books are difficult to find.

Bartholomew And The Oobleck                                       1949

The first printing book has blue boards. Later printings were changed to red boards.

Availability: Blue boards books are difficult to find.

If I Ran The Zoo                                                             1950

Copyright page with seven lines only, omitting the line “BASED ON MATERIAL WHICH ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN REDBOOK MAGAZINE.” Later printings have eight lines, including the Redbook line.

Availability: ‘No Redbook’ boards books are extremely difficult to find.

Horton Hears A Who                                                       1954

Horton has full ear on back cover and the list of other Seuss titles on the recto of the back free endpaper. Second printings also have Horton with full ear on back cover and Seuss title list on the copyright page.

Availability: ‘Full ear/Rear titles page’ boards books are extremely difficult to find.
Availability: ‘Full ear/Copyright titles page’ books are very difficult to find.

If I Ran The Circus                                                         1956

The first printing book has pink boards. Later printings were changed to red & yellow boards.

Availability: ‘Pink boards’ books are not so difficult to find.

The Cat In The Hat                                                         1957

Matte boards with single binding signature. Later printings have glossy boards with three binding signatures.

The ‘matte cover with single signature’ book can be found with the 2^nd printing dust jacket (no price on flap) and 3^rd printing dust jackets (‘195/195’ on front flap).

Availability: ‘Single signature’ books are difficult to find.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas                                      1957

Back cover with full page advertisement for The Cat In The Hat offered for sale for $2.00.

This book was used on 2^nd printing dust jackets (295/295 front flap) and 3^rd printing dust jackets (295/295 and 16 titles listed).

Availability: ‘Back Ad $2.00’ books are not so difficult to find.

Cat In The Hat Comes Back                                             1958

Copyright page states ‘First Printing.” Also, the snowball to the left of the Cat's tail is only on the first edition book.

Availability: ‘First Printing’ books are not so difficult to find.

Happy Birthday To You                                                    1959

The first printing book has a printing error on page 34 (page beginning with “Today is your birthday”), with six white spots that do not appear in later printings.

Availability: ‘White spots’ books are not so difficult to find.

It is a complicated subject, the idea of first edition being ‘first edition/first printing.’

As an example, the "conventional wisdom" first edition The Cat In The Hat, with the ‘200/200’ on the front flap, is considered the first printing, while the '200/200' was in actuality used in numerous printings.

"Huh?", you ask. Let me explain. 

The Cat In The Hat was first published in March of 1957. The sales far exceeded initial expectations. The ‘200/200’ dust jacket was used on the book into early 1958, and perhaps mid-1958.

The first instance I can find of the book’s price reduction to ‘195/195’ is in the October, 1958 edition of The Horn Book Magazine (pg. 325), where Random House advertises the first six Beginner Books for $1.95.

It is illogical to believe the initial printing of The Cat In The Hat for the March, 1957 publication was sufficient to supply books for all of the sales through January or March of 1958. And especially in light of sales being higher then initially expected.

Therefore the logical conclusion is there were multiple printings of the ‘200/200’ Cat In The Hat through the course of 1957.

The book collecting community currently cannot distinguish the first ‘200/200’ printing from each of the other ‘200/200’ printings, yet we still consider all as ‘first edition/first printing’.

The first edition ‘200/200’ Cat In The Hat routinely sells for $3000 in today’s market.

Some of our readers - parents, teachers, educators, and feminists - will find the following research article of keen interest, Gender Stereotyping and Under-representation of Female Characters in 200 Popular Children’s Picture Books: A 21st Century Update.

The research was performed at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, by Mykol C. Hamilton, David Anderson, Michelle Broaddus, and Kate Young. It appears to be even handed and performed without bias.

This study is based upon a sampling of 200 books published since 2001, including all Caldecott award books. The authors found a “persistence of sexism in picture books.”

We present this information not as an endorsement or indictment. Instead, for those with an interest, read the excerpt, then follow the link to read the entire research document, and develop your own thoughts, opinions, and course of action.

Abstract.

Gender stereotyping and under-representation of girls and women have been documented in children’s picture books in the past, in the hope that improvements would follow. Most researchers have analyzed award winning books. We explored sexism in top selling books from 2001 and a 7-year sample of Caldecott award winning books, for a total of 200 books.

There were nearly twice as many male as female title and main characters. Male characters appeared 53% more times in illustrations. Female main characters nurtured more than male main characters did, and they were seen in more indoor than outdoor scenes. Occupations were gender stereotyped, and more women than men appeared to have no paid occupation.

Few differences were found between Caldecott award books and other books. A comparison of our book sample to 1980s and 1990s books did not reveal reduced sexism. The persistence of sexism in picture books and implications for children and parents are discussed.

Gender Stereotyping and Under-representation of Female Characters in 200 Popular Children’s Picture Books: A 21st Century Update

Does Sexism in Picture Books Matter?

First, common sense suggests that gender bias in books matters—that stereotyped portrayals of the sexes and under-representation of female characters contribute negatively to children’s development, limit their career aspirations, frame their attitudes about their future roles as parents, and even influence their personality characteristics.

Second, experimental research strongly suggests that gender bias in picture books is harmful to children. Schau and Scott (1984) reviewed 21 studies on the effects of sexist vs. nonsexist children’s instructional materials (e.g., male versus female characters; sexist versus nonsexist generic pronouns), and discovered a consistent tendency for sexist materials to strengthen children’s biases.

In one study (Ashton, 1978) 3-5 year old children read gender-biased or -unbiased children’s picture books. Children who read biased books later made more stereotypic toy choices. Based on these and other studies, Tognoli, Pullen, and Lieber (1994) concluded that gender bias in children’s books gives boys a sense of entitlement and lowers girls’ self-esteem and occupational aspirations. Moreover, Weitzman, Eifler, Hokada, and Ross (1972) argued that the dearth of female characters teaches both sexes that girls are less worthy than boys.

Other researchers have concluded that children’s literature provides girls and boys with standards of masculinity and femininity (Peterson & Lach, 1990), offers socially sanctioned behavioral models that children may imitate (St. Peter, 1979), and presents a basic model for understanding oneself and others (Rachlin & Vogt, 1974).

For the rest of the research article, see Gender Stereotyping and Under-representation of Female Characters in 200 Popular Children’s Picture Books: A 21st Century Update.