First Edition Identification Guide: Beginner Books Now Published!
For those with an interest, my First Edition Identification Guide: Beginner Books is available as hardcover POD on Amazon.
The retail price is $59.95, Amazon is selling for $48.69. The manufacturing costs are $30 for the 288 page hardcover, containing over 300 photos and images.
This is the second Guide in the series, along with the companion First Edition Identification Guide: Caldecott Medals which was published last month.
Note: Clicking on the image at right or below will zoom in for details.
First Edition Identification Guide: Beginner Books
“This First Edition Identification Guide assists children’s book collectors and booksellers to accurately identify first edition Beginner Books.
Beginner Books started after the 1957 publication of Dr. Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat, as a series of early readers which entertained children with colorful pictures accompanied by bouncy words, while at the same time helping them learn to read. Beginner Books transformed the way in which school children learned to read in America, and the first editions have become highly collectible.
This Guide provides detailed information on the first fifty Beginner Books, from B-1 to B-50, spanning the years 1957-to-1967. There is a chapter per book providing a thorough bibliography, along with photographs of the first edition book, title page, copyright, and the dust jacket front, front flap, and back flap.
Each chapter clearly provides the first edition identification points for the book and dust jacket. This Guide serves to clarify misunderstandings and incorrect identifications circulating throughout the collectible book market by providing the identification points for second and later printings, and to describe the clear differentiation from the first printing.
Additionally each chapter provides information for the book collector to contemplate the potential scarcity and collectibility of each first edition Beginner Book.”
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how do i tell if the 2 dr.suess books i have are in perfect condition theyre price value?
sandy venable17@gmail.com
ABEBooks is the most widely used website to list and sell first edition and antiquarian books. See here to view books which the seller proclaims to be Dr. Seuss first editions: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=seuss&bi=0&bx=off&cm_sp=SearchF-_-Advs-_-Result&ds=50&fe=on&prc=USD&recentlyadded=all&rgn=ww&rollup=on&sortby=1&xdesc=off&xpod=off
Hello,
I am in possession of my mother’s Children’s Book Collection. (I am an author/illustrator of children’s books,… (50 years, about 250 titles,.. most were written AND illustrated by me, though, over the years, I illustrated many OTHER author’s stories. (Nancy Willard, Rosemary Wells, Dennis Lee, Liza Baker, and several other fine writers for children).
Because i am selling my home, (I believe it’s called “Down-sizing”), I am looking to sell my mother’s collection. (Whenever one of my books was published, I always gave my mother the very first copy. [I was sent advance copies by my publishers, which I then passed on to my mother). She guarded those books quite jealously. (She kept them in a LOCKED glass-fronted bookcase: Even I had a difficult time getting her to open that cabinet door,: Sometimes I wanted to “borrow” a book to show a new publisher just what I was capable of, but my mother was certain that she would never see that book again!)
Sadly, I have not maintained that measure of diligent guardianship. (I have given many books to my children and grandchildren: However, there are still about 150 books in the collection).
If you have any interest in obtaining this collection, please email me sat: davidmcphail7@gmail.com
Sincerely,
David McPhail
I also have the “working dummies” for many of my books. They, too, are available for purchase.
I have an unusual early printing of “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” which I believe dates to earlier than 1957. There is no mention of Random House, and no mention of Beginner Books. It was found with other books dating to the 1940s and ’50s. The title page has: “Published by Vanguard Press, Inc., New York. Book Club Distribution of this Edition distributed by Grolier Enterprises, Inc., by arrangement with the original publisher, Vanguard Press, Inc.” This is a hardcover edition, measuring 8 1/16″ x 11 1/16″ in size. Marco has blue shorts on the cover. Illustrated endpapers in blue and white. Likely printing year??
Hello Adam: This sounds like a Grolier Book Club edition published from 1960-to-1967 (or so). You didn’t mention a dust jacket. Probably the most accurate way to date the book is from the other Seuss titles listed in the book. Was The Sleep Book, The Lorax, or Happy Birthday listed?