An Online Resource for BookABOUT COLLECTING CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Some people believe that collecting children's books is a desire born out of nostalgia. This may be be true in some cases, where seeing an old book you once read brings a hope that you can regain some childhood memory or joy. On the most part I believe that collecting children's books is borne out of curiosity. This along with the spirit of the hunt and the elation of a find makes it for me one of the most delightful and enjoyable forms of collecting.
Children's Book Dealers
Collecting illustrated children's books is often seen by book dealers as a "microcosm of collecting adult books" but I believe that they are missing that "magic" ingredient that makes these doorways back to childhood so special.
The illustrator can by translating their vision to the page, transport us into their realm, in the same way as authors can entrance us with their words and give us a glimpse of strange new worlds. Their artwork can make or break a children's book, it can even make it a classic. When these books are read at an early age, these conjurers of the well thumbed page have the power to imprint an image in a child's mind that will remain there for life. Who could fail to be enchanted by the magical lines of Ernest Shepard as he brings into life the eponymous Teddy Bear, Winnie the Pooh. In our minds eye, how many of us see Alice as that little wax doll figure illustrated by Tenniel in the first copy of Wonderland.
What Children's Book to collect?
Illustrated Children's Books cover such a diverse range that there really is something for everybody. There are Fable books and Chap Books, Natural History, Fairy Stories, Adventure Stories, pop ups and movables, Victorian Bindings and Alphabet Books amongst the most popular. These have been illustrated by such great artists as William Blake, Cruikshank, Richard Doyle, Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, Ardizzone, Sendak and a host of lesser known names. In fact, some books like Alice, Peter Pan or a Child's Garden Book of Verses have inspired so many artists that collecting a the single title can prove a fruitful basis of a collection, with each pictured by a different artist.
Collectors of Educational Books & Alphabet readers are not confined to the beginnings of Children Publishing, for more modern works are still been produced. At the start of her career even Enid Blyton's work was mostly educational.
If you prefer a broader field of collecting why not try to find a book for each year. Start backwards from The Hobbit 1937; Winnie the Pooh for 1926; Wind in the Willows for 1911; then fill in the remaining years. You will soon have acquired a collection that will show the development and history of Illustrated Children Books. We must remember though, that the collector of children's books has a much harder job of it, than say a 'Modern First'' collector in finding that "Mint" book. The really popular titles are often described as "well loved", having only just survived the trials and tribulations of the nursery intact. So from the outset you must decide whether you are looking for a good example for your collection that you can thumb and read or that pristine example to be locked away in your humidified collector's cabinet, where it gains value but no dust or memories. Most beginners are content with one copy until a better one comes along. This approach will need self discipline, for as each new edition you find will have some slight intrinsic difference that will make you loathe to part with it and so you collection will expand exponentially.
Most collectors start with the work of one illustrator, usually a much loved picture to a forgotten story in the book that you cannot quite remember from your childhood. Perhaps it is not even important that you cannot even remember the name of the person that wrote the story, just that the essence of the book remains with you as a cherished memory. So, many quests begin.
Collecting Illustrated Children's books is such a very personal thing that it does not matter how rare or common you are told it is, it does not matter if the book is pristine and mint or tatty with the covers falling off, trust your heart, if the book sings to you, buy it. You might be tempted to buy a book you do not really like just because it seems like a good investment. DON'T!
No one knows what a book will be worth in two, five, ten, twenty or a hundred years. If you collect books to cherish, they will give you pleasure that will far outweigh any financial return.
