Posted by First Edition Identification Points – A Wrinkle In Time
A Wrinkle In Time – 1963 Newbery Medal Winner
A Wrinkle In Time; L’Engle, Madeleine; New York: Ariel Books/Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1962. 8vo, 211pg.
A Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L’Engle’s timeless classic, is one of the most beloved contemporary children’s books. Although it won the 1963 Newbery Medal, the book is one of a few which transcends the award. First editions are scarce and expensive when they surface. A recent query found five first editions on the market, with an average asking price of $12,900.
Collectibilty
We’ve identified key factors which affect the collectibility and value of a contemporary children’s picturebook and adapted them for children’s chapter books.
For the ‘Book’s Awards factor, the Newbery Medal winning books have not only won an award, each has won THE AWARD; there are none bigger in the field of children’s literature field than the Newbery Medal.
A Wrinkle In Time gets high marks across all aspects of collectibility. Madeleine L’Engle has high eminence as a children’s book author, the book is early in her career and is her marquis book. The book has been popular across several generations. Even fifty years after its original publication, the book continues to be enormously popular. Because of this popularity there have been a high number of copies sold relative to the quantity of first printings.
A Wrinkle In Time was the first in a series of books, so has higher collectibility due to the franchise factor. A Wrinkle In Time gets a relative strong pop culture ranking, with several treatments with motion pictures, however it has not yet had the enormous boost via a blockbuster motion picture.
Scarcity
The scarcity of a collectible book has a major impact on its value, however alone does not drive value. The value results from the balance of supply and demand, where scarcity represents the supply of the first edition book and collectibility represents the demand. The market value of a book is determined by the relationship between scarcity and collectibility.
When valuing the 23,000 books for the Children’s Picturebook Price Guide, I used a 10-to-1 scale in the database to rank a book’s scarcity, with 10 being the most scarce, and 1 being the most common (click here for a definition of each ranking).
In 1962, Madeleine L’Engle was not a marquis author, so A Wrinkle In Time did not have a high first print run. For the better part of its fifty year publication life, A Wrinkle In Time has not been considered a highly valued collectible, therefore has had a high attrition rate of collectible first edition books. Many dust jackets were discarded and the well-read book’s condition not of primary concern. Therefore there are relatively few first editions available relative to the demand.
I would rate the scarcity of A Wrinkle In Time an 8 or 9 on a scale of 10.
Market Value
There are five copies currently for sale with an average selling price of $12,900. The most expensive copy is a near fine book in a near fine dust jacket, signed by Madeleine L’Engle, and offered by Aleph-Bet, the leading bookseller of collectible children’s books in the country.
Key First Edition Identification Points
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First Edition Dust Jacket
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