The Top Collectible Children's Books

More than twenty years ago, antiquarian bookseller Helen Younger of Aleph-Bet Books in New York published an article called 100 Years/100 Books: High Spots of Collectible Children's Literature. Recently, she decided to revamp that list to reflect today's collecting market. Her essay, From Peter (Slovenly) to Potter (Harry), in our current summer issue is complemented by her new list, which leads with the 1848 English-language edition of English Struwwelpeter and closes with the 1997 first edition of the first Harry Potter book. Here are some of my favorites from the list:

1868-9 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Two volumes, Boston: Roberts.

1908 Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. London: Methuen.

1928 Bambi by Felix Salten. NY: Simon & Schuster. First U.S. Ed.

1942 Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

1952 Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. NY: Harper Bros.

1963 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. NY: Harper & Row.

1970 Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Cleveland: World.

See the full list HERE.

Image courtesy of Aleph-Bet Books.