A Field Guide to the Birds

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1934. First Edition. First printing Near fine in textured, dark green cloth covered boards with white text on the spine and front board with the flying duck in white. A 12mo of 7 1/4 by 4 3/8 inches with very faint rubbing to the cloth at th ends of the spine and to the fold to the front board. There is a short newspaper clipping of a poem pasted to the front paste down and an early dated ('1934") gift inscription on the first free end page. The hinges and joints are tight and strong. The pages are clean and free of marginal notations, underlinings, checkmarks, etc. Without its extremely scarce and fragile dust jacket. 167 pages including an index, suggestions for further reading and text. Illustrated with sketches within the text and 36 plates 32 of which are black-and-white images; a color frontispiece; and, three colored plates the four of which are each protected by printed tissue guards. This is the author's first field guide and is the first printing of this title with the date "1934" on the title page and the misspelled "bob-pumper" in the index instead of "bog-pumper". It is one of only 2,000 copies printed which sold out within ten days. (Wikipedia) (Note: Paul A. Johnsgard in his essay appearing in the Nebraska Bird Review titled: A Book-collector's Guide to Roger Tory Peterson, refers to the various first editions of this title as a "first, second and third states". More correctly they should be called "printings", with subsequent releases called "second", "third" or "fourth" printings.(see Glaister p.457))