Monday, July 20, 2009

The Tale of Peter Rabbit- American Piracy-Part 2



Today I would like to discuss the third format of the Tale of Peter Rabbit published by Henry Altemus. This is by far the most familiar format of the Wee Books for Wee Folks Series.

In 1917 the third format was introduced. At that time The Tale of Peter Rabbit along with three other Peter Rabbit titles were introduced . They all had the familiar applique (paste-on) on the front cover.

The other three books were Went to Sea, At the Farm and Christmas.

All four of these titles initially stated Wee Books for Wee Folks on the top of their title page. By 1918 all four books stated Peter Rabbit Series at the top of their title pages as they became the first four books of the 20 book Peter Rabbit Series.





















Thus the 1917 books are easily distinguished from the 1918 books and the 1917 books are easily distinguished from earlier Peter Rabbit books. Again remember that even this format's The Tale of Peter Rabbit has the 1904 copyright notice on its title page,

A couple of other points.
1. The 1917-1922 books have blank end papers.
2. The lettering on the cover of the 1917-1921 books is yellow (red for Peter Rabbit's Christmas)

So anytime a book seller notes the paste-on in his ad for this title, the book is at least a 1917 book.

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