Babar Books for the Sacramento Book Fair

Le Voyage de Babar (The Travels of Babar - Jean de Brunhoff 1932 1st Edition)

I've hinted about the above listed item (and one other that I'll show below) I'm sure, in the last several weeks.  I wanted to save these last two books for last - partly because I was still doing research trying to find some details about publishing history, etc. - and partly because I wanted to unveil them right before the book fair this weekend.

The story of the original Babar Books is one that many people might have heard at least portions over the years -- when one of his sons was home ill, Jean de Brunhoff's wife Cecile told him a bedtime story to help him get to sleep.  The boy ( and his brother who happened to have heard it as well) related the story to their father because they found it so interesting. Jean de Brunhoff was a painter by trade - he took the idea, drew a few illustrations,  and named the elephant Babar - thus history was made.  I'm sure there was much more to it than that, as there always is with creative endeavors.

So - that part of the story of these books is fairly straightforward.  Easy to research (though I hadn't known that Jean de Brunhoff's ties to the publishing world were so close -- his brother-in-law and brother worked for magazine and / or book publishers to some degree, and the family itself had been working in publishing for a number of years.

For me, the basic research about the books themselves has been  easy.  But one of the books came with an  additional item that is extremely unusual / rare.

The Story of Babar (Jean de Brunhoff - 1st American Edition by Smith & Haas, 1933)  (note - the first three books in the series were originally published in the US by Smith & Haas.  The series was taken over by Random House by 1936. Random House released new editions of the original three titles, making them 1st US editions thus)

What I had been calling a mailing envelope for a time - but now I've decided is more a variant style of dust jacket. 

Currently, I've found mention of the envelope once in a listing  -- in the negative. i.e.: "this copy does not include the rare envelope".   I have found ONE auction record in the last 50 years noting the envelope -- and with NO information about the history of this envelope.   There are copies of this book available with a regular dust jacket (one that wraps around the book and has flaps that cover the pastedown pages).  This envelop has a pastedown illustration in monochrome, which mirrors the illustration on the front cover of the  book.
It is obvious that this ephemeral item was intended to be used in the same manor as a dust jacket -- but why would the company make both a regular style dust jacket, and this much more fragile version?   Remember, this is a book specifically published with children in mind -- ok, in the 1930's it's possible that the idea was that adults read the  books to the children and that the books would be handled carefully, but....

I know I've mentioned that dust jackets on children's books from the early 1900's - the 1930's tend to be either in ratty, tatty condition (for the most part) or non-existent, and when found will add a premium to the books.  Two notable examples of this are The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum where the presence of a dust jacket can add an enormous amount to the price, and Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey - ditto. (I would include Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes - but that's my Scifi side coming through. The difference in price for a 1st Edition with a dust jacket and without is approximately 1000%).

Copies of the 1st Editions of any of the first three Babar books (either in the original French or the US editions) with dust jackets (in any condition) have become scarce - very scarce - and can take the prices up dramatically.   However, since mention of this variant dust jacket is lacking in most references and I haven't so far found any verifiable information other than one vague mention of it's existence and one verified auction sale which included an "envelope" but with no detailed description of it, this particular ephemeral item is somewhat of a wild card in how it adds value to the book. 

Because I'm one of those people who can't seem to give up until I find what I'm searching for, I'll continue to hunt down more information regarding this variant dust jacket / envelope.  If and when I do, I'll be sure and let you all know. Until then - wish me luck at the Sacramento Book Fair (three days and counting!)

Little Bear's Playtime by Frances Margaret Fox

The date on this book is 1935 (it's not a first, that would have been 1932, but it's charming all the same). The book includes a series of short vignettes / stories about Little Bear and is illustrated with both black and white and full color plates by Frances Beem. The stories range from: Little Bear's Nearest Way Home, to How the Three Bears Ate Supper Together, to When Old Neighbor Spider Helped Little Bear.

I liked that Mother Bear wanted the family to all eat together -- something we do try to do at home, but because there are four, and sometimes five different schedules to keep track of, not really possible all the time. Here's what Mother Bear says: "Families should be together at mealtime, especially at supper," said Mother Bear. In the case of this story, Mother Bear's reminder came because Little Bear went out to the forest to explore & forgot to come home for supper. He found every stream, tree, leaf and bug to be so interesting that he couldn't help but forget the time.

Nice thought. It's something we should be remembering to do today. Pay attention to what's around us & find it so interesting that we can't pull ourselves away (nature please... NOT computers!)

At any rate, this group of stories can be read today both for their easy reading, fun value for children, but for adults as a reminder of what life COULD be like when we're not plugged in & tuned out.

Enjoy.

Jellybeans for Breakfast

So I'm getting bored (well, not exactly bored, but restless) of constant data entry today so I thought I'd check out a few of the titles that I had bought, but not looked up and stacked in a slithering pile by my desk (you remember the desk... well, the box piles are somewhat smaller, but then other piles start to emerge like creatures from the Black Lagoon).


The book pictured above is one of those I just looked up. I knew of Miriam Young from her Miss Suzy series (terminally cute and fun-- and collectable) so I picked up this title, which I hadn't seen before, but had a vague recollection of anyway. Turns out, this particular title is one of the most sought after of her books. Prices online are STRANGE and basically overpriced, but then there are a couple of other books like this that have weird collectability. Gator Pie (by Louise Mathews) is one of them.

The book itself is cute. It's illustrations are generally nice, but, to my eye, nothing overly special and the story is about friendship and friends doing all sorts of crazy, fun stuff (without their parents or school to hinder them). But the PRICES.... man.... $100 is minimum and one strange soul has the book listed for $600.00. As if he's EVER going to get that for a picture book like this!

I'm taking a more moderate approach to my pricing, but I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face either. Right at the moment, I finished entering the data for it, but I'm not listing it on line until after this weekend, just in case someone at the Book Fair interested.

Now I'm not putting the book, the illustrations or the prices down -- in fact, if I can send this book to someone who fondly remembers it & wants to pass it on to a loved one, that's GREAT. That's one of my favorite ways to sell books -- to people who really CARE about the book, the story, the illustrator, etc.

Still, the PRICES.....

WOW!

In other news, I'm down to the day before launch to the Gold Rush Book fair. I've got 18 boxes packed (WAY down from the last time... when I took 33 boxes). I'm hoping that less crowded, more front facing books will help. Also, I'm doing this because I'm getting older and my knee is already protesting the work it's going to have to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be buyers out there and that I've got what they want. On the good news side, I heard from a former customer of mine today who is going to the fair & asked me to bring a couple of books for her... that's GOOD news!

On the bad news side, my allergies are not getting better & my head is fuzzy and achy most of the time and I'm feeling draggy and rather grouchy. Not a good combination when you have to be sparkly and on your toes (and can add & subtract without making mistakes) for the entire weekend.

I'll try to post tomorrow, but this might have to hold you through until Monday (or Tuesday....)

Sunbonnet Babies...

Both of these books feature the Sunbonnet Babies -- the babies, created and illustrated by Bertha Corbett Mecher, became a HUGE hit in the early 1990's. As you can tell from the covers, the babies wear sunbonnets (the old style that were most associated with the wagon trains) which completely cover their faces.
Stubby little arms make the girls look like toddlers and the clothing completely covers their bodies (so basically you see the arms, the hats and the big poofy floppy dresses on the girls and nothing else (which -- if you want to be snarky, is a good way to get out of the hard work of drawing faces and other body parts -- I've never been good at drawing any body parts, so I'd be first in line to try NOT to).






I've had these books around for a while & I love not only the illustrations, but the quaintness (is that a word?) associated with the books. I COULD call them Darling even (but I'm not really that sort of person.

While they are still quite collectable, the market, and the collectors for the series are becoming farther afield. Which means the books might stay on my shelves for a few more years to come.

I don't mind. I enjoy looking at them anyway.

Today it's Field mice...

I swear, I'm NOT stacking these books up on purpose on my desk.

Really.

It is just a major coincidence that I've had four books in the last week that are children's picture books about mice.

However, I was right that a nice collection of mice books could appear if one started looking.

This particular book has illustrations by Erik Blegved and the mice (and the other animals) are very detailed and anatomically correct in their depictions. I wish that the interior illustrations were in color as well as the front dust jacket, but it's not to be.

I just checked my database and I have 150 books with mice listed as a keyword -- now that was a general look and some of them are duplicates and not all of them are children's picture books, but the majority are. 150 books! And I'm sure that's not even the tip of the Mice / Mouse collecting iceberg. Now that I'm looking for them (not for a collection of my own, you understand... I've got plenty of books already piling up) but as a new thing to think about as I'm going about my daily business.

I'd love to hear what other types of books you people collect.

When I'm at book fairs I talk to customers about their collections and am always surprised -- and hear about collections that are new to me & sometimes ones that I would never have imagined. That information is both really enjoyable to hear about, but also good for me to know when I'm out scouting...

Any takers?

Let me know!

So many cute illustrated mice out there...

John S. Goodall is the illustrator of this wonderful little book -- he has published several books about Shrewbettina (who may be a shrew, not a mouse, but there ARE mousies in the book and on the dust jacket as well).

WONDERFUL delicate illustrations. And, to top it off, it's a book with no words. You just look at the pictures to get the story.

I originally entered this book in my database last September (for a book fair) -- put it on hold so I could offer it at the fair ... and because it was a last minute buy, didn't have any detailed description added to my database. Today, I pulled it off a shelf to put in the box for the next book fair & found out it was STILL on hold -- no wonder it didn't sell. I thought I was getting better about that sort of thing!

Here's another wonderful mouse book:



This is the second book I've featured by Palmer Brown (remember, he only wrote and illustrated four books in his career as an book illustrator). Palmer Brown's artwork is so delicate, so wonderfully deft and without excess color or lines that I could stare at it all day. In some ways, it reminds me of Tasha Tudor's illustrations. But Palmer Brown is NOT Tasha Tudor and one mouse book is not the same as another mouse book. Of course, the best way to find this out is to start collecting books illustrated with mice...

Enjoy.

Four days in a row? Wow!

See -- when I started this blog I expected that I could post a new blog entry every day without pulling too much of a sweat. Well, for the most part, that went by the wayside quickly. The first thing to go was the weekends (kid stuff gets in the way -- and now it's baseball season, so evenings are gone too).

Darn -- I just thought of a picture I SHOULD have taken & posted. Son number one is now deep into Boy Scouts (as compared to Cub Scouts like his brother). He officially started work on his Gardening merit badge yesterday (with a bit of help from me) -- he and several other troop members got a chance to PULL WEEDS! Yup, the beginning of the gardening is to prep the ground and they got to use real live tools (and watch men use power toys --oops tools-- as well.
I should be taking blow by blow pictures. Next week, when we go back for more ground prep and planting, I'll remember to do the picture taking thing then. It was 96 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside as we were working (at 5:30pm) and NO shade to be found... we were all red and sweaty.


SO -- back to the blog thing. This week, I've posted four times in a row, AND with photos!

I'm so proud of myself.

Of course, once I post this, something will happen so I can't post for three more weeks... life

Here's another:



These are two of the five books I've gotten added to my database & uploaded today. I would LIKE to try for more books per day, but so far, it's not to be.

If you'd ever like more information about any of the books pictured here, please email me.

Enjoy!

Really Rosie... Maurice Sendak

Oops, another sideways picture. I need the pictures for my descriptions, but I just can't seem to take the time to do them perfectly -- also sometimes I think the frame is straight, but can't tell til after I put the card into the computer if it really is or not.

(PS: most... well, actually, 99% of the books pictured on my blog are available on my website -- I don't know how long some of them will last, but if you see something you like, find the link off to the side of this blog and have at it!)

I LOVE Children's picture books. It was late coming, as I've already mentioned (my first loves were youth chapter books and then science fiction-- both genres where you see the picture in your mind's eye, not on the page). However, after son number one was born, I started noticing more things I liked about children's books -- and it went downhill (or uphill depending on how you look at it) from there.

Every time I went out book hunting, I'd find MORE children's picture books than what I was seriously searching for. Pretty soon I found that I had a knack for finding good titles... and then...


There's a lot of "and then...." in my life.

Currently, I'm sure I've mentioned that I'm trying to log more non-fiction work into my database to see if I can jumpstart sales.

--- You know, life would be breeze if I could do the job I love without having to worry about paying those pesky bills! ---

So far, it's been working, but I miss entering the children's books. I'll probably pull out a box of them soon and dig in. But this next week or so, I'm going to start frantically searching through my boxes for the last few books I want to take to my next book fair. The book fair is in Grass Valley, CA (up the road about two+ hours) and is one of my favorites. It's a small fair, but very friendly and relaxed.

The thing is, BEFORE the weekend at the fair, there are three to four weeks where I panic and try to figure out what I'm taking, what my focus is, why I'm going, how stupid I'm going to look, am I going to take books that will sell --- oh, the list could go on for days, weeks... don't get me started.

So now it's getting to be crunch time. I need to start mentally preparing and deciding. And then I have to check everything, poke around, pull the boxes out for transportation & start filling them, etc. etc.


NONE of which has anything to do with the beginning of my post about Children's books -- except that I'm currently trying to decide if I should take a bunch of picture books to the fair, or if I need to leave them home in favor of the non-fiction new stuff....


If you have an opinion -- especially if you're going to the fair -- let me know.

(PS: I'll post a link to the Gold Rush Fair information another day. Today I have to run & take my son to the Dr. for his yearly physical)

Man, those Victorians sure knew how to terrify children!

If you've never seen a copy of this book -- well ... maybe for those who are faint-hearted, that's a good thing.
Struwwelpeter (alternately known as Slovenly Peter or Shock-Headed Peter) is a book filled with nursery rhyme style verses / poems which were used by parents to keep their children in shape. Tough love, hah!

The title character, Slovenly Peter gets off easy. It's some of the other children & their habits listed in the book that will give you nightmares (who KNOWS what it did for little children back then).

Here are a few titles for you:
Cruel Frederick
The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches
The Story of the Inky Boys
The story of the Man Who went out Shooting
The story of Little Suck-A Thumb

I have to stop for a moment -- this poem freaks me out (can you tell I actually sucked my thumb for a while as a child?)

Ok, here's the poem:

One day Mama said "Conrad dear,
I must go out and leave you here.
But mind now, Conrad, what I say,
Don't suck your thumb while I'm away.
The great tall tailor always comes to little boys who suck their thumbs;
And ere they dream what he's about,
He takes his great sharp scissors out, and Cuts their thumbs clean off - and then,
You know, they never grow again.

Ok, there's more.... you guessed it. Conrad can't help himself & the tailor comes...

the pictures that go with this verse are just plain wrong.
Conrad ends up with no thumbs.

Not much nice stuff here at all. In fact, the whole book could make an adult queasy.
No wonder those victorians got a bad rap. They deserved it.



On the other hand, it IS a COOL book. Rotten stuff in it, but the illustrations are wild and the whole concept... well...

Maybe if I get some times I'll add a few pictures from the inside of the book.

Nutshell Library update...

I mentioned that if I found any further information on the Nutshell Library (the one from the 1960's) I'd add a note to the blog...

Courtesy of Richard Mori of Mori's Books, there IS a fourth set available... by A.A. Milne -- it's four miniature books in the Winnie-the-Pooh series.

That brings the list to:

Maurice Sendak
Hilary Knight
Robert Kraus
and
A. A. Milne

if you happen to know of more, please let me know.

A Firefly in a Fir Tree.... la la la....

Last weekend, I went book hunting and while others (it was a friends of the library book sale) were rather frantically scouring through piles of books (lots of ex library copies), I happened to glance down on one of the tables & see the above listed little slipcased set.

Here's a better view of the front:



Well, a better view of the front of the box and the four tiny books that go inside...

This is the Christmas Nutshell Library set illustrated by Hilary Knight (best known for his work on the Eloise books by Kay Thompson. There are other Nutshell Library sets (Maurice Sendak's version is VERY collectable, but there's another that I found by Robert Kraus... so far, those three are the only sets in THIS version of the Nutshell Library. I'll update this if I find others).

I love this set. I haven't seen one of the Hilary Knight versions before (in fact, there seem to be less of them available than the Sendak set, but that's likely because this set was never reprinted & Sendak's was). All the illustrations are by Knight & show the delicate, humorous style he is famous for. In fact, slipcase cover at the top of this post shows a little girl who looks a LOT like Eloise...

Here's one of the books:


And another:




Though I've always primarily thought of myself as a Science Fiction / Fantasy dealer, my luck at finding collectable children's books has grown and I seem to be wending my way more down that path...

I love this set. It's darling. It's funny. It's miniature. It's cool. It's collectable. It's the best find from a friend's sale in a while.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Suckered myself again....

Yesterday, I dealt (in a small way) with some ex library copies that I couldn't pass up.

Today, it's the old... do I buy something because I CAN remember all the information I need to, or do I pass it up because I CAN'T remember...

First off, let me set the scene for you.

I go book hunting for some of my stock by checking book fairs, book sales, friends of the library stores, etc. Normally, I DON'T take my references with me (because the one you need would always be left behind anyway). It's my job to REMEMBER this stuff on the fly.

I have at least one reference to Dr. Seuss titles (First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books by Younger & Hirsch .... I highly recommend it).

SO I was looking in a Friends of the Library store I frequent regularly and saw about four Dr. Seuss titles WITH dust jackets....

Dust jackets for most books are de rigueur...(ok, for books that HAVE dust jackets, there's a whole lot more from before the 1800's that don't but I don't deal with those much...)

ANYWAY...

Finding early Dr. Seuss titles with dust jackets is a GOOD thing.

The lovely staff at this store tried to do some research on the books & labeled at least one of them a 1st edition... which means that the price goes up accordingly.

Now, here's the part where the instincts and the training are supposed to come into play.

Remember, I don't have this particular reference on hand, and if I leave the store to travel half an hour back home to get it, someone else could snaffle this batch of books right from under my nose...


I'm pretty sure none of the books is a first. I know THAT much at least. But this one...

Well, my brain was chugging along enough to ask the staff if I could check online (they have a computer they use for this very purpose ... normally I would NEVER ask this sort of thing, but the price tag was $35.00 and I wanted to be very sure).

Got on the computer (with the lovely lady looking right over my shoulder). Some of the info looked ok, but I really needed to take a closer look. Which meant pulling out my reference.
Which I DIDN'T HAVE.

SO, being a good bookseller, I put the book on my pile anyway.

NEVER pass up a Dust jacketed Dr. Seuss in decent condition, especially if it looks like an early copy. That's a mantra most children's picture book dealers learn early on.

Now I didn't get greedy. The other three Dr. Seuss titles were definitely NOT early printings (or 1st as marked) and the prices were too high for the condition (some of the dust jackets were missing whole chunks) so the only one I put in my pile was this one.

Of course, this isn't the only book I buy that day. Which is a good thing, because when I get back to my references and start checking points, I find out this is definitely NOT a 1st edition, in fact, while it's early, it's not even THAT early.

What the staff at the Friends of the Library didn't do (and what I didn't have time to do there) was to check the list of titles on the reverse of the dust jacket --

All it would have taken for either of us to figure out this is NOT a first edition , would be to run down the dates on the list .... because there, sticking out like a sore thumb, was a book published in 1962. (Horton Hears a Who was originally published in 1954).

CAN'T MISS IT!!!
(actually, I need to pull a copy of the wikipedia list and put it in my overstuffed purse with all the other notes that I find useful).

So now this copy (early & generally very good+ WITH the dj) which cost me $35.00 (plus tax & gas) is now going on my website for $40.00.

It serves me right for being a bit greedy.

On the other hand, I learned a very valuable lesson that won't be forgotten (which is the way collectable dealers learn most of their lessons....and I've got a few zingers in my past to remember).


There are some books that you have a great feeling about that actually DO turn into something wonderful.

Another day I'll tell that sort of story.

Santa and Alex

Delia Ephron is a scriptwriter -- probably best known for "You've Got Mail" and more recently for "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". She's also known as Nora Ephron's sister. She's NOT known for her written word, but it turns out she's published a few books along the way. This title was published in 1983 & is actually somewhat difficult to find. The illustrations by Elise Primavera have a youthful jubilance and humor which I particularly like. (No, this is a book with extremely detailed illustrations like the last two).

Mostly it's just a fun book.