Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$175.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Quarto, 102 unnumbered pages, pictorial boards (rubbed), edgeworn, corners worn, rebacked in brown leather with new endpapers. Ex libris Elsie Walch 1929. Note: it appears that young Elsie helpfully provided pencilled page numbers at the top of each page. Verse by L. Frank Baum. Illustrated by W. W. Denslow, who, of course, also did THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ the next year. Hand-lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, his first big job after arriving in Chicago from Indiana. and before he began his Alderbrink Press. The final page is a drawing of Ralph Seymour by W. W. Denslow.
Seller: Thomas J. Joyce And Company, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Price: US$1150.00 + shipping
Description: HB NODUSTJACKET, September 1899, 1st edition,1st Issue, Pictorial Tan Cover in Beige & bRown & Orange & white of Father Goose with feather in haNd & Goose looking at him, Much Rub, Scuff & Wear & small StaiNs & Wrinkling to Covers GOOD- , cover Hinge has nice Tape Reinforcement Restoration Most Likely but has on spine printed Father Goose His Book , with Baum bottom of spine , Cover some chipping near Extremities & Scuff, Othrwise GOOD delicate Condition Cover, Interior Hinge probable white Tape Reinforcement,Few pgs small mended Tears & creases or Scuff, few small INK margin mrks, Minor Fox, OtHerwise Nice, & Tight, Most Plates are Nice & colors Bright, Few Page Repairs in Margins, Few small pencil mrks, Interior VG-, AS-IS, NODJ, UNpaginated
Seller: Bluff Park Rare Books, LONG BEACH, CA, U.S.A.
Baum, Frank L.. Father Goose His Book. Geo. M. Hill Co., Chicago, 1899.
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Chicago Geo. M. Hill Co., 1899. First Edition of Baum's Father Goose BAUM, L. Frank. Father Goose. His book. Pictures by Wm. W. Denslow. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill Co., [1899]. First edition, first issue. With no printed information about edition on copyright page. Large quarto (10 11/16 x 8 3/4 inches; 277 x 222 mm). With numerous full page, color illustrations. Original pictorial boards. Very good condition, remarkable uncommon in this condition. The "first significant American color-plate children's book." Schiller 21. The first edition of Father Goose was published on September 25, 1899. To the astonishment of Hill and the delight of Baum and Denslow, it was so quickly sold out that a second edition of ten thousand copies was printed on October 16. By Christmas, 75,700 copies had been run off to meet the demand. On a single day, December 18, 1899, there were sold 3,934 copies. Nor did interest in the book die with the holiday season. During 1900 this best seller required the printing of an additional thirty thousand copies, and the Tribune reported in June, 1900, that "Father Goose, His Book last year achieved the record of having the largest sales of any juvenile in America." Father Goose with his old-fashioned skirted coat and twinkling eyes, like a comic Ben Franklin, was popular alike with the public and the book reviewers. "Father Goose is the new philosopher of the cradle and the fireplace," wrote the Times Herald. "As he comes in fancy masquerade, with clever yarns, bright ditties and assurances that the will take off from Mother's shoulders a good deal of work, give him double welcome." Father Goose set the pattern in some ways for the format of the Oz books that were to come. Greene and Hanff. To Please a Child, Baum & MacFall. HBS 65986. Of course, Baum and Denslow collaborated on another classic that year for Hill -- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.