Always a Collector

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Collecting Little Golden Books ... Striking Gold

 COLLECTING LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS … STRIKING GOLD!

My Little Golden Book collection is the oldest and most loved of all of my many collections.  Little Golden Books (LGBs) were first introduced in 1942.  Prior to this time, most children’s books were not of a “kid friendly” type.  Since my mother had been an elementary school teacher before I was born and I was a child of the early 1940s, we were the perfect audience for the new easily available books.  Through my childhood years, my sister, brother, and I had a nice collection of Golden Books, but when we outgrew them my mother passed them onto our younger cousin and only a few worn out books remained. 

I still have fond memories of some of the early books … Mother Goose, The Little Red Hen, Three Little Kittens, and Fairy Tales … but my favorites were Noises and Mr. Flibberty Jib,  Fix It Please, Playing House, and The New Baby, all of which were illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  When I had my own three daughters, I began to buy all the new titles and reprints of the old titles.   Many new titles illustrated by Eloise Wilkin were published during these years, and I bought them all.  They grew up loving  LGBs as much as I had.  Then in 1992, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of LGBs, Golden Press brought out a facsimile boxed set of the first 12 books published.  Of course, I had to have a set even though my own daughters were too old by then for LGBs. 

It was about this time that I first began to go to antique shows and shops looking for a few missing pieces of my mother’s silverware.  On my first trip to the Scott Antique Show in Atlanta, I found a booth of all kinds of collectible children’s books including LGBs.  Browsing through the stash, I found and bought several books that I remembered. I decided that the one book that I really would like to find was The New Baby that had been read to me so many times before the birth of my brother, who was born when I was about six.  I was on a mission, checking out stacks of the older books every time I went antiquing.  Even though I wasn’t lucky enough to find The New Baby right away, I would usually find another old book that I remembered, and my collection started to grow and grow.  It took me about seven years before I was able to find the “piece de resistance.”  That was more than 25 years ago, and now I have a huge wonderful collection of books.  My daughters have enjoyed them as well as my grandchildren. 

Along the way, I discovered there is a lot to know about collecting these books.  Since I decided I only wanted to collect books from the 1940s and 1950s, I started to do research about how to know which ones to collect.  I bought Tomart’s Price Guide to Golden Book Collectibles (it was in this book that I was inspired by the phrase “striking gold”). Later I added the third and fifth editions of Collecting Little Golden Books by Steve Santi.  These books are just filled with the history and development of the books.  They also have complete lists and photos of all of the books in chronological order.  I began to read, learn, and check off the books I had collected and make a list of those that I wanted to collect. In the beginning, I took the reference books with me and left them in the car.  If I found some books that I wasn’t sure about, I could go out and look them up in the guides.  After a while, if you collect a lot of anything you need a list.  For collectibles other than LGBs, I keep a small spiral notebook of lists in my purse.   Now I keep my lists on my Pinterest as well,  including my wish list.   Even though I don’t “need” to add to most of my collections, there are a few things I would still like.  Pinterest wish lists allow my daughters to be able to use their iPhones to check the lists any time‼

The earliest books had blue spines and dust jackets with the golden spine … today it is rare to find a book with the dust jacket (this is the only one I have) and they are pricey.

These books are old but their dust jackets are gone … they are usually first editions

So many very old Golden Books … old books are easily recognizable by the darker, thicker spines

Old golden spines up close

A very early book back … only shows the first 12 books published

These are early backs but the more books listed the more recent the book

A view from the top … the original books had 42 pages … 28 pages in color and 14 pages black and white. The original price was 25 cents. At some time during the war paper became in short supply and the books were reduced to 28 or 24 pages.

The remains of my childhood books!!

Vintage front boards

Vintage end boards

Art that spreads across the pages

The copyright page in the front of a Little Golden Book, 1958 … this happens to be an A printing

In later years several different backs were used

The alphabet letter on the last page of a book tells which printing or edition it is with A being the first … here are books from the A, G, and B printings … sometimes the letter is up inside the spine and may be hard to find … the earlier the printing the more valuable as a collectible but I usually buy an old book of any printing if I don’t have it

Sometime in the 1970s the printing began to be listed on the copyright page rather than as an alphabet letter in back … so even though the copyright for this book is 1960 it wasn’t printed until 1973

Originally the books were 25 cents but did not have a price printed on the front; the book’s number was there. Later prices were printed on the top right corner. The price remained 25 cents from 1942 until 1962. The price changed in 1962 to 29 cents. In 1968 the price changed to 39 cents and in 1974 the price changed to 49 cents. The 25 cent price represents the truly collectible books and are the books of the 1940s and 1950s that I limited my collection to. However, the 39 and 49 cent books were the books I bought for my three daughters.

Many great artists illustrated the Golden books and many of them were emigres from Europe especially during the war years. These books were all illustrated by the artist Tibor Gergely who came from Hungary to America in 1939. He won the Caldecott Award in 1955.

Gustaf Tenggren came to America from Sweden in 1920. Many other artists illustrated Golden books including Gertrude Elliot, Corinne Malvern, Richard Scarry, and Eloise Wilkin. When I love the art of a particular artist, a special collection begins. I especially love Corinne Malvern and Eloise Wilkin and have large, nearly complete collections of their books. Corinne Malvern also illustrated some of the school readers of my childhood so I have collected them also.

The three editions of The New Baby … the oldest on the left is the one I remember from my childhood. I will have to make a blog post exclusively of my Eloise collection!

A few of the books illustrated by Corinne Malvern

The many Christmas books are fun to collect and I display mine at Christmas time under the tree.

There are many editions of the Night Before Christmas illustrated by Corinne Malvern … of course I HAD to find them all!

There is a whole series of Golden Shape Books

Illustrated by another of my favorite artists Florence Sarah Winship

A scratch and sniff book

There are many activity Golden Books … with tape, decals, paper dolls, puzzles, recipes, and turning wheels. To find an activity book complete with its activity is rare and usually pricey.

Learning to tell time

There is a large line of Disney books … some have red spines

There are many Pooh books … a favorite

A stack of special spines including Christmas, Disney and Giant Golden books

There are many sizes of Golden Books besides the Little ones and it is hard not to collect a few of these. Kittens is a Big Golden Book.

Then there are the tiny Golden Books

And the Golden Shape Books

There are many big story books

And small story books

The Giant Golden Books

The Golden Nature Guide … there is a whole series of these

I bought the 50th Anniversary Collection in 1992

A wonderful book about the history of Golden Books … a must for any collector … published when Golden Books were 65 years old.

The 75th Anniversary Collection

One of my reference books … sometimes I see them for good prices on eBay … though the prices change the information about the books stays the same

Quite a collection … especially considering that I have given my daughters all the copies that belonged to them

ENOUGH SAID!