The Rarest American Children's Book

GOODRICH, Samuel Griswold. The Tales of Peter Parley About America. Boston: S.G. Goodrich, 1827. Illustrated with 36 wood engravings on 32 plates by Alonso Hartwell, J.W. Barber, and others. 12mo, original quarter sheep and slate boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Housed in custom full green morocco clamshell box, with full cloth chemise. Covers rubbed and a little browned, corners worn, light to moderately heavy foxing throughout. Top of title page excised from 7/8 to one inch above the word “Tales”, resulting in loss of the word “The”. The following leaf containing the Preface, excised 1/4 inch from top with no loss of text. Both excisions seem to have been undertaken to remove an inked notation, scant traces of which remain, probably initals or a name.

In spite of the above imperfections, this copy would seem to be equal or superior to most of the other known copies. The collation given in Peter Parley to Penrod ends at page 142. In our copy, the last page 144 is misnumbered 142 i.e. the pagination being 141-142-143-142. There are a very few marginal tears, not affecting text. The last leaf -pages 143-142 [sic]- has a tiny hole which obliterates the letter “G” in George . First edition.
One of the great rarities of children's literature. It was the initial entry in Jacob Blanck's Peter Parley to Penrod. A Bibliographical Description of the Best-Loved American Juvenile Books. (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1938). Blanck could only locate one copy rebound, at Harvard University. The 1954 Pierpoint Morgan catalogue of Children's Literature added to this the Barrett copy at the University of Virginia. Today, OCLC locates an additional five copies (Library of Congress, Yale University Library, Amherst College, Princeton University and Free Library of Philadelphia). Additionally, the American Antiquarian Society holds a defective copy. In the trade during the last thirrty years four copies have sold at auction:

1. Sotheby Parke Bernet, 28 February, 1974, lot 692. Half sheep, rubbed, spine defective, binding cracked, foxed. $2,750.00

2. Sotheby London, 2 June, 1982, lot 75 the Oppenheimer copy, original half leather, joints repaired, stained title page and preface repaired. £2,420 ($4,235-4,464)

3. Swann, 29 April, 1992, lot 186 the Epstein copy, quarter sheep, original boards. Worn with covers
detached, endpapers detached and childish scrawl in brown ink, some scattered dampstaining and
browning to text, a few minor marginal chips or short tears. $13,200

4. Sotheby New York, June 1, 1995, lot 45, slateblue boards backed with red sheep. Some foxing, soiling, and staining, rubbed, front joint chipped with loss. $14,950

5. To those can be added the incomplete Mildred Greenhill-H. Bradley Martin copy. The H. Bradley Martin sale, Sotheby's New York, January 30-31, 1990. This lacked four pages of text as well as one of the illustrations. Original half roan boards, slightly worn. It did not sell.
From the descriptions, it is possible numbers one and four as listed here are the same copy.

[Blanck, Peter Parley to Penrod I. Pierpoint Morgan Library, Children's Literature, 49. Grolier Club, One Hundred Influential American Books Printed Before 1900, 35]

$30,000.00       ID# 19401

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