Personal Gems From The Cave Of Books

[Daisy]

"I'll tell you a Story" was my very first Enid Blyton book which I had at about the age of five. The copy I now have is minus a dust wrapper but the pictorial board is very pleasing.

[pete9012S]

As most will know from studying the pictures above from the cave,the follow on book had a very familiar wrapper!

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... ther+Story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wondered if the pictorial boards of both books was the same as well,but it seems they are different.



Nice to hear about your first Enid Blyton book Daisy.Mine was The Enid Blyton Book Of Brownies(1967 edition) when I was about four years old.

Once again, the Cave really is a most excellent source of information for research when collecting Enid's work.

[Tony Summerfield]

After your interest, Pete, I am going to work on these as I noticed that I hadn't done wraparound wrappers for them, but my wrappers aren't all that great I'm afraid.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... ou+a+Story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

Very beautiful. Eileen Soper at her best!

[Courtenay]

I find the little boy a bit stiff and unnatural-looking on the dust jacket — he looks almost like a propped-up doll — but the girl is beautifully drawn and the background is lovely. It's interesting to see a painted Soper illustration in contrast to the line drawings we're all used to!

[pete9012S]

Lovely full wrapper and often overlooked board underneath.
Many thanks Tony.

Macmillan certainly seemed to produce books of a very good standard.

[Rob Houghton]

I love the wrap-around design - beautifully done. Eileen Soper definitely benefited from full colour!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Macmillan certainly seemed to produce books of a very good standard.

Yes, and in wartime too!

[Tony Summerfield]

One of the strangest Macmillan books is Just Time For a Story. I have never seen a copy in a wrapper and nor has anybody else that I know and yet it has probably got the least impressive board decoration of all the Macmillan books. I just feel that it had to have one and so when I was compiling my bibliography I phoned the archivist at Macmillan. He checked it out for me and told me that it never had one. Then someone sent me a copy of the American edition published by the St. Martin's press (The Macmillan imprint in America) and it had an Eileen Soper wrapper - not a wraparound but similar to all the other Macmillan titles. I still wonder if the archivist got it wrong!

[Rob Houghton]

I have 'Just Time For A Story' and agree with you - the cloth boards are very simply decorated. I can't imagine it never had a dust wrapper. Seems odd that the American wrapper was illustrated by Eileen Soper when the internal illustrations are Grace Lodge!

[Rob Houghton]

Here's another personal 'gem' - which i bought the other day complete with wrapper. (previously I only had it without a wrapper).



These are great little books - and were still being reprinted in various forms into the 1990's (Tales of Long Ago/ Brave Adventure etc). These originals are quite unusual in that they are so small - only around 6 and a half inches by 5. Until I saw one for myself, I imagined they were large size books rather like an annual, for some reason.

They are nicely produced volumes with several colour plates and black and white illustrations, but what strikes me most of all is the price - surely quite expensive for 1930 at 2 shillings each?

[Tony Summerfield]

Those are the posh ones, Rob, but they were also published as 'softbacks' with blue linen covers at 1/3. These also had the colour plates which I think dictated the price of both editions.

[Rob Houghton]

They do look posh - and well produced, especially since in 1930 Enid wasn't the writing phenomenon she was later to become.

I just noticed on the back cover that the cheaper version is advertised there - what they call 'full cloth' is 2/- and 'Limp cloth' were 1/3

[Anita Bensoussane]

Attractive covers, rich and romantic. I haven't got any of those books myself (though I've had the Dean & Son Tales of Long Ago and Tales of Brave Adventure since I was five) but I particularly like the look of the cover of Tales from the Arabian Nights:



I've only just learnt, from looking in the Cave, that all four books were reprinted by Element in 1998. Not such eye-catching covers on the whole, though I do like this one by Rosemary Woods:

[Tony Summerfield]

I have been playing around with these books in the Cave and I have added in the soft linen-covered 1st editions.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... od+Book%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;