Where the Red Fern Grows *True 1st

Rawls, Wilson

Published by Doubleday, 1961

First printing in jacket; First Edition stated. Woodrow Wilson Rawls (1913-1984) based this story on his childhood in eastern Oklahoma, where his parents had a small farm (his mother's Cherokee allotment). He burned his initial manuscript prior to his marriage, but later, with his wife's encouragement, rewrote it in three weeks. The Saturday Evening Post serialized the story in 1961, publishing it in three parts, calling it _The Hounds of Youth_. Doubleday published it in book form later that year under the title Where the Red Fern Grows. Initially sales were slow; the book appears to have been marketed to an adult audience. Eventually school teachers and librarians discovered it and the book was reissued in 1971. It has since sold over six million copies. Note: a first printing must state First Edition; there should also be the 1961 year of publication on the title page. Many copies advertised as first printings are simply early reprints. Also, the 1971 reissue will have ISBN numbers on the back jacket flap. This first edition (1961), first printing copy is Near Fine with a crease to the free front endpaper. Boards are clean, square, and tight. Interior clean. No previous owner name, no smudges, no foxing of course, and pages are crisp. Price-clipped jacket has very little wear, only a bit at the top spine and top fold, quite exceptional actually. It has a bookstore label on the top front flap from the Clos Book Store in Twin Falls Idaho, roughly 150 miles from Idaho Falls, where Rawls lived at the time. A pity it is not signed! This is a first state jacket with no ISBN code to the back flaps (as in the 1971 reissue). A scarce book. Seller Inventory # 104080602

Bibliographic Details

Title: Where the Red Fern Grows *True 1st
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: 1961
Binding: Hardcover
Illustrator: Reisie Lonette (jacket illustration)
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Signed: Not Signed
Edition: First Edition, Stated.