About this Item
First Edition, First Issue with all the first issue points: the dark red covers, the eight-line colophon including 'Oberly & Newell Lithograph Corp.'. The dust jacket, which you can see in the first three photographs, has the blue-and-white striped background, the star-burst design. It also has the 200/200 price at the top of the front flap. This genuine first issue is fairly rare. The condition of the red covers appears better than the few others I've seen. Most conspicuously, it is free of any soiling. The black lettering and design on the front and the black lettering on the spine are both bright and free of wear. The instances of wear are as follows: a relatively small amount of rubbing (removing the red color) at the spine ends and at the top and bottom edges of the spine, similar spots of rub-through at the four corners (at the front bottom one it extends a little bit along the bottom edge), one nick (slight indent) off the front top edge and one off the rear top edge (the latter one creating a tiny closed tear), one nick at the front bottom edge and a number of tiny spots of very light rubbing to the red color there. Beside the two indents at the top edges, these edges are not rubbed and the red color is not at all faded. The two middle edges are free of rubbing and the color is also similarly bright. The red color of the two bottom edges, despite the light spots of rubbing is also nicely bright. The book is very solidly bound. The pages and the covers are nicely tight. There are no cracks or spaces between any of them or between the covers and any of the pages. There are no binding issues. The pages are very clean. I didn't see any instances of soiling. There isn't any conspicuous creasing, no turned-down corners or placeholder creases, at most a few small, light, crinkles, nothing much of anything. There is a thin strip of tannish toning on the rear inside cover, just adjacent to the juncture. The colors, the illustrations, all look very good, without exception. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments. There is a penned inscription off the top edge of the front inside cover, not touching the illustration. I thank that boy for shrewdly purchasing this book for his father's Christmas present, and especially for doing it in 1948. The inscription reads 'To Daddy, from Bennie. Christmas, 1948.' The handwriting looks like it was Mommy's. There is no other writing of any kind to be found anywhere in the book. You can see the dust jacket in the first few photos, kind of a tale of two cities. The bad city has the losses. The good city is the rest of the jacket which is very clean and sort of looks new. The losses you can see so I won't reference them specifically. There is thin tear coming down from both of the front covers top edge losses. As you can see they are not terribly conspicuous. I'm not seeing any other tears on the jacket. The jacket is quite clean looking. There is the slightest bit of handling soiling on the white surrounding the front cover title, slightest. The flaps are in better condition than the ones I've seen in other's pictures. There is a small sliver of a loss off the top edge of the rear flap, also a few white scratches down near its bottom edge. The loss at the front covers bottom corner extends to the middle edge and just very slightly on the front flap, nowhere near the print and only coming up 1 1/2 inches from the bottom edge of the flap. The rest of the front flap looks very good, one very small crease off the top edge and with a tiny bit of the middle edge loss at the top edge as well. Overall, the flaps look quite decent and are very clean. The jacket is not price-clipped, not clipped at all. I've always had it in a fitted protective cover. Anybody who's seriously considering the book should reach out to me to see some more pictures as there is a picture limitation on the site of five. Seller Inventory # 004465
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