Children's Books from Sumner & Stillman

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… Read more about this item

1853. being A Second Wonder-Book. With [Six] Fine Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1853. 8 pp preliminary ads dated July 1853. Original blind-stamped green cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First American Edition, first printing, published in the month following the English edition. This is Hawthorne's collection of mythological tales (the Golden Fleece, the Minotaur, etc.) re-told "for Girls… Read more about this item

1853. being A Second Wonder-Book. With [Six] Fine Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1853. 8 pp preliminary ads dated July 1853. Original blind-stamped red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First American Edition, first printing, published in the month following the English edition. This is Hawthorne's collection of mythological tales (the Golden Fleece, the Minotaur, etc.) re-told "for Girls… Read more about this item

1853. being A Second Wonder-Book. With [Six] Fine Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1853. 8 pp preliminary ads dated August 1853. Original blind-stamped blue cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First American Edition, first printing, published in the month following the English edition. This is Hawthorne's collection of mythological tales (the Golden Fleece, the Minotaur, etc.) re-told "for Girls… Read more about this item

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… Read more about this item

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… Read more about this item

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… Read more about this item

1909. London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1909. Original light brown boards with cover pictorial onlay. First Edition, first state, of the author's fourteenth book, which like her first includes Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor. Copies were available to the public in green or light brown paper-covered boards at 1/-, or in decorated cloth at 1/6.… Read more about this item

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… Read more about this item

1944. With Decorations by J.J. Lankes. Boston: The Horn Book, 1944. Original light brown buckram printed in red, with front cover plate, with dust jacket. First American Edition. This edition, and Warne's UK edition, were published shortly after this tale's first appearance in the 20th Anniversary Number of The Horn Book (Boston, May 1944). Although Beatrix Potter did… Read more about this item

1913. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1913. Original grey-green paper-covered boards with cover pictorial onlay. First Edition of the author's nineteenth book, her second title (after THE TALE OF MR. TOD) to appear in the "New Series" that was unfortunately issued in a binding almost as fragile as the earlier titles. THE TALE OF PIGLING BLAND was most… Read more about this item

1956. New York: Frederick Warne & Co. Inc, (1956). Original beige cloth lettered in blue, with dust jacket. First trade edition, first printing, following a 100-copy UK printing in 1955 for copyright purposes. Written in early 1907, this is a story about two pigeons, Mr. Vidler and his wife Amabella -- the latter of whom, trapped in a… Read more about this item

1971. London and New York: Frederick Warne, (1971). Original white cloth pictorially decorated in color, with matching dust jacket. First Edition, published 28 years after the author / illustrator's death. The Foreword by Leslie Linder explains that Potter wrote this in 1906, and the plan was for it to be a third title in panoramic (or concertina) form… Read more about this item

1912. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1912. Original light grey paper-covered boards with front cover color plate. First Edition of Beatrix Potter's eighteenth book, and the first title to appear in the "New Series" that was unfortunately issued in a binding almost as fragile as the earlier titles. Unlike Beatrix Potter's earlier books, the principal characters are villains!… Read more about this item

1911. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1911. Original dark green paper boards with arched pictorial onlay. First Edition of these adventures of Timmy Tiptoes (and his wife Goody), grey squirrels trying to get nuts collected and stored up for the oncoming winter. Timmy is wrongly accused of stealing other squirrels' nuts and is thrown through a tree-hole into… Read more about this item

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… Read more about this item

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,… Read more about this item

1905. With Illustrations by F.H. Townsend. London: Macmillan and Co., 1905. Original white cloth with gilt vignette, with dust jacket. First Separate Edition (having first appeared, unillustrated, in TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES the year before). This is an allegory of a limbo of lost children tended by a blind woman, children who are not yet ready for Heaven and… Read more about this item

1889. [inscribed by Lewis Carroll] With Forty-six Illustrations [each] by Harry Furniss. [Together, two volumes.] London: Macmillan and Co., 1889/1893. 3 pp / 5 pp undated ads. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, all page edges gilt. First Editions of Carroll's rather serious fairy tales. SYLVIE AND BRUNO, with its conclusion in 1893, was the last considerable… Read more about this item

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… Read more about this item