Whitman Book Section First Draft Finished!

 Damn.  That took WAY longer than I wanted.  But it is done.  Here are some stats:

• 13 titles
• 16 countries
• 56 editions

Not looking forward to revisions on this section.  Now on to the rest books.

Garden of Live Flowers LGB with Promotional Wallet

How cool is this?  I don't know what exactly this is, I can only assume that it was some sort of in-store promotion, but this is the Alice Finds the Garden of Live Flowers Little Golden Book with a Mouseketeers Alice in Wonderland wallet attached to the front cover.  The wallet is in some sort of plastic sleeve - which is barely there - which is in and of itself unusual.

The LGB only has an A printing, and the Mouseketeers did not come into existence until 1954 with the Mickey Mouse Club, so there must have been a TON of these books printed and some store was using them as a promo to sell more wallets, or vice versa.  Regardless, what a neat find!

Photos from the Arkansas Exhibit

The people at the Arkansas Secretary of State have generously sent me a bunch of photos of the Little Golden Book exhibit.  I encourage anyone who lives nearby or is planning a trip that passes through Little Rock, AR to stop by the exhibit.

Arkansas State Capitol LGB Exhibition Starting December 7th 2013

The Arkansas State Capitol will be having an exhibition of Little Golden Books and associated materials beginning December 7th, 2013, and they are reproducing material from yours truly and his blogs as a part of it; namely the Golden Catalogs and the various foreign incarnations of the Alice books.  If you are in that area I encourage you to go!

The Westerner Magazine - September 1951

This is awesome.  A copy of The Westerner magazine, the company periodical for Western Publishing, home of Little Golden Books and all sorts of other fantastic printed items from the 1930s onward, including a slew of Alice material from the original release.  This issue features an Alice cover!

The cover story is about the Goodwill parade in Racine, headquarters of Western, and this was the Disney Alice float in that parade, featuring a live Alice.  

I'd swear that the float was constructed out of Stensgard display parts, normally used for store window displays.  Stay tuned for a future post on Stensgard.  I've never seen any pieces, they probably didn't survive since they were glorified styrofoam.

This issue also includes a story on the local screening of Alice.  Just look at those great display pieces!  Those kids certainly look like they are having a good time.

Nice inset of the cover on the copyright page as well.

Little Golden Book - Mad Hatter's Tea Party - Australia

Second and final of the known foreign editions of the Mad Tea Party comes from Australia.  As with the other Australian editions, this Mad Hatter was printed a couple of times.  This first printing you see here,

and this interesting edition with the Mickey Mouse Club imprint. 

This dates this edition to at least 1955.  It is also interesting to note that the stock number changed on this edition.  First edition is D11, but the MMC edition is D11:30

Little Golden Book - Alice et le Chapelier Fou - France

First of two known foreign editions of the Mad Tea Party, the French edition.  Essentially the same cover as the American, but rendered differently.

As with the other French editions of the Little Golden Books - or more properly Les Albums Roses - the various printings all look the same and have the same 1952 copyright, the only differences being the end papers

and the back cover.

Little Golden Book - Mad Hatter's Tea Party

I'm finally getting around to posting the series on the last of the Little Golden Books - the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Based on what we saw in the Golden Catalog in this post, we know that this title was not only published after the other two, but announced after the other two.  As such, it comes as no surprise (at least to me) that there are so few foreign editions of this book as we'll see in the coming days.  Similarly to the Live Flowers book, there was only one printing of this title - at least in this country.  To date I have not been able to locate or even confirm the existence of a Goldencraft edition of this title. 

The art is a little different in this title too.  According to the title page this book was adapted by Richard Kelsey and Don Griffith, and I don't think the art has the charm of the Dempster art in the White Rabbit title.

Life Magazine Photo - Can You Find All the Alice Items? Answers!

Here's what I found in the photo, from left to right, top to bottom:

• Alice gift wrap (the pink square at the far left edge, not yet posted)
• 3 Vira greeting cards
• Gund White Rabbit and Mad Hatter dolls
• Live Flowers LGB
• unknown Alice candy box (!)
• Alice Madame Alexander doll
• Mad Hatter and March Hare Gund dolls
• unknown Alice child garment (!)
• Regal Alice shaker
• Evan K. Shaw figures - Mad Hatter, March Hare, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter again, Walrus
• Alice Tea Cup Watch

You get extra credit if you noticed the March Hare SP figure as a part of the Marx playset

Little Golden Book - Alicia y el Conejo Blanco - Spain

Will the foreign Little Golden Books never cease?!  Another new discovery, this White Rabbit from Spain.  Part of the Pequeño Libro Dorado (little golden book) series, this is #3.  There are no other Alice titles listed in that series.

Looks like this White Rabbit is more like a Pink Rabbit, maybe he's blowing too hard on his trumpet.  Satchmo he ain't...

This edition resembles the French version, although the rendering on the French is much nicer.

Little Golden Book - Alice och blommorna - Sweden

Continuing on from yesterday's newly discovered Swedish White Rabbit LGB, comes this newly discovered Swedish Live Flowers LGB.

#37 in the same series as yesterday's book.  Notice that this has the same cover as the edition from Norway.

Apparently there is some confusion on these books, this is the Swedish version of Alice Finds the Garden of Live Flowers as published in the US.

Little Golden Book - Alice och den vita kaninen - Sweden

Boy, this is a banner year for discovering new editions of the Little Golden Books.  Today's latest discovery is from Sweden, and bears a gift inscription on the inside front cover of November 25th, 1952.  This is the White Rabbit LGB, and the series title (FIB:s Gyllene Bok) translates loosely to People and Pictures:  Golden Book.

This title is #32 in the series, and according to Wikipedia there were no original Swedish titles, all were translated from the US editions.

Apparently there is some confusion on these books, this is the Swedish version of Alice Meets the White Rabbit as published in the US.

Little Golden Book from Japan 1958

Third new discovery of the new year, and second new Little Golden Book, this time from Japan.  Ok, I guess I can't really call this a Little Golden Book, although it is the same size as a LGB.  It is pretty much its own creature.

The cover is taken from the same art as the Japanese herald I posted about here, which in turn was taken from the Little Nipper book cover that I have not blogged about yet (stay tuned!).

The back cover tells us the year, and that this was apparently #7 in a series of books.  I'm hoping one of my readers can translate the other six titles for me.  Pretty weird art for Dinah on the back cover...

The first 4 pages of art are indeed taken from Al Dempster art, although in the case of the title page it has been cut and pasted from a variety of sources.

After that, it is all new art, with a limited color palette of blue and orange.  Until page 21, when it switches to monochromatic blue (did they run out of money?  Or just orange ink?

I'm totally digging Anime Alice in this art, and the best is the last interior page, page 36, looks like Alice in Wonderland meets Speed Racer.  "Go Arice Go!"

 

UPDATE:  A reader did provide not only a translation of the back cover, but of EVERY page pictured!  As follows:

Exclusive Disney printing rights reserved

Shogakukan's (publisher's name) First-grader, Learning
Library

---

Volume 1 (April) Picture book and fairy tales
Volume 2 (May)     Word book
Volume 3 (June)    Disney Picture Book, Cinderella
Volume 4 (July)     Ako-chan and picture book
Volume 5 (August) Kuri-chan's summer vacation
Volume 6 (September) Group of Little Detectives
1958, Volume 7
Name, Published by Shogakukan, Tokyo

---

Alice in Wonderland
(This book is due to our publishing company's exclusive
contract with Disney Productions)
A Disney Picture Book

---

Alice went to the land of playing cards.
What will happen?
See page 28.

---

(Right page)
The Wondrous rabbit-hole
(Left page)
As Alice was playing, a white rabbit went into a
rabbit-hole.
"I'll go into it, too."
"It's a little room".

---

(Right page)
The Magic Cat
"Mr Caterpillar, I want to become large."
(Left page)
"Oh, he's gone."
"Here I am".
"If you eat the mushroom, you'll become large."

---

Color the picture
Color with your favorite colors.

---

Happy New Year! Little Golden Book - Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie Trova il Giardino del Fiori Parlanti - Italy

What better way to start off the New Year than with something altogether new?  You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found this, an unknown foreign Little Golden Book.  This is from Italy, and is of course the Garden of Live Flowers.  This has a 1951 copyright, and is #13 in the series Piccole Avventure, or Small Adventures.   There are no other Alice titles in the series , at least through #18.

This particular copy bears the embossed stamp of the S.I.A.E. - Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori, which translates to the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers.  It must have been some sort of file copy or registration copy at one point, although there is a handwritten child's name in the 'belongs to' box on the inside front cover.

Little Golden Book - Elisa Di Negeri Ajaib - Indonesia

A much more recent edition, but my only Alice item from Indonesia in the entire collection!

Little Golden Book - Alice in Wonderland Meets the White Rabbit - Australia

Australian Little Golden Books are almost indistinguishable from their American brethren (we speak the same language you know, barring a few misplaced vowels).

As with the US editions, there are several printings of the Australian edition. The quickest way to identify a first is by the spine. Unlike the American editions of the period, and later editions in Australia, the spine is not gold foil.

Also the last book listed on the back cover is D10 - the Flowers book.

Little Golden Book - Alice et le Lapin Blanc - France

From Hachette (the one we all know and love), comes the French version. This is part of a series known as Les Albums Roses - their equivalent of Golden Books - but being French they are PINK!

There are several editions of this book that look virtually identical, and unfortunately they all have the same 1952 copyright date. The only way to tell a true first edition is by the endpapers

and the back cover.

These books, like their American counterparts, have red tinted page edges - or I guess that should be PINK!

Little Golden Book - Alice und das Weisse Kaninchen - Germany

Ze Germans (thank you Turkish) also published the White Rabbit book - along with the Flowers book - but oddly enough did not publish the Mad Hatter book.

There is even the equivalent of a Goldencraft edition for the German edition.

There is a second printing too, it is a softcover rather than a hardcover.

The publisher of this and all the German Disney books of the period is Blüchert-Verlag. The cover art on all ze German editions is the same, but quite different from the American version.

Little Golden Book - Alicia en el País de las Maravillas Encuentra al Conejo Blanco - Argentina

This is the only Little Golden Book (Librito de Oro) I've ever seen from Argentina. The cover is the same as on the US edition, but the quality of the image is a little odd, sorta like there is a film covering it - but there isn't. The publisher is Hachette, a company normally associated with French books, guess they had a South American subsidiary too.


It sure takes a lot more letters to spell this title in Spanish!

Little Golden Book - Alice in Wonderland Meets the White Rabbit - Goldencraft Edition

Just as with the Live Flowers LGB, the US White Rabbit book has a Goldencraft edition too.

As previously noted, this is a third series Goldencraft binding. These editions were typically used for schools and libraries (given their more durable covers), and are generally difficult to find.