Harper & Row, New York 1963
SIGNED FIRST STATE of the First Edition, First Printing Fine/Near Fine First Printing Book, in an unrestored Near fine First state dust jacket, SIGNED WITH A WILD THING DRAWING by Maurice Sendak on a sheet pasted onto the half title page. All first state points present. The identifying points for the first state dust jacket include the unique content of the information found only on the First State jacket flaps (no mention of the Caldecott award, and instead includes a three paragraph blurb about Sendak on the rear flap and a three paragraph blurb about the book on the front inner flap). The first state book is equally unique in that the colors of the inks used on the end papers as well as many of the internal pages are different from the later printings. Unpaginated. Please see detailed images.
The book has crisp boards in fine condition. The corners are sharp, and the book has no edgewear. The binding is tight and square. The book is in beautiful condition for this title which if often found with scribbles, writing, ruined spines, edgewear and other issues that revolve around first edition children’s books. Instead this book has bright, clean boards with no fading, no toning, no staining and no scribbles. The stunning end papers are in perfect condition with no inscriptions, no owner names, no bookstore stamps, and no bookplates. The internal pages are clean, bright and crisp. The book has a fantastic signed original drawing of the Wild Thing “Bernard” by Maurice Sendak who signed, and dated the drawing “GRRR! / Maurice Sendak / May ’82”. The internal pages are still rigid and with no writing, no stains, no handling marks, no rips, no bent pages, and no foxing. Beautiful clean, crisp, bright copy of a children’s book in hard to find condition!
The book comes with the scarce original price clipped first state, first edition dust jacket. The unrestored jacket is in near fine unusually bright condition. (Note – The price is not important in the determination of the first state jacket as the first state is exclusively determined by the content of the information found on the inner front and rear flaps. A three paragraph blurb should be on the front inner flap with the bottom of flap having the requisite code of 40-80, and 1163; there should be NO MENTION of the Caldecott Award on either flap, and the rear flap should have a three paragraph blurb about Maurice Sendak). The dust jacket has strong vibrant colors, and is unusually bright with but slight rubbing to the top of the spine, otherwise no edgewear, no rips, no chips, no rubbing, no stains, no fading, no scribbles and no foxing.
A very handsome example of this scarce signed title presenting very well with the stunning jacket and clean interior at a great price for this title!
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