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.

Tale of Peter Rabbit-First American Piracy-- Part 1

One of the most common errors in advertising and selling books published by Henry Altemus involves its Peter Rabbit piracy. Most people are aware that the first American piracy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published by Henry Altemus Company in 1904. Where most sellers go wrong is that they do not know how to distinguish early from later formats of this title. In addition, they are fooled by seeing that on the title page all of the editions say "copyright 1904". (We are just talking about the 16 mo. editions here. The larger sized books are clearly later copies).

A very well known children's book dealer who specializes in high price items has this ad:

(Summarized) Peter Rabbit, Henry Altemus Company 1904. pale green.... Dust wrapper. Dust wrapper lists 6 titles including Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Mother Goose Nursery Tales, ... A very early if not first edition in this format. $750.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit was one of six books introduced by Altemus in its Wee Books for Wee Folks Series in 1904. The first editions were 5.5 x 4.25, had a decorative pattern with the title on the left of the cover, and a book appropriate multi colored illustration within an oval on the right side of the book. This is the true first edition.


Later in 1904-1905 the familiar line drawn book appropriate pictures on a green cover were noted. This was the first format of the second edition. By 1908-1912 the second format of the second edition had a beige/light green cover but the picture was the same the green cover. The third format of the second edition has the same picture on the cover but is now bluish with an orange spine.






The Third format will be discussed tomorrow.

There was one other key change beside the cover colors during the years of the second format. In 1916 the names of two of the titles were changed. Nursery Tales and Nursery Rhymes became Mother Goose Nursery tales and mother goose Nursery Rhymes.





















As you can see here, this book with the Mother Goose titles must be from 1916 or later.



Now back to our ABAA/ respected book dealer. The advertised book cannot be older than 1916 based on the titles noted on the book. The book is clearly a second edition, second format book. It is not the first, not an early edition, not the first in that format. And certainly in my opinion the price is somewhere beyond way too much. But, of course, that is only my opinion.

The six books of the Wee Books Series published first in 1904 are.
1. Nursery Tales
2. Nursery Rhymes
3. Tale of Peter Rabbit
4. Foolish Fox
5. Three Three Pigs
6. Robber Kitten