RAGGEDY ANN'S LUCKY PENNIES

Joliet / New York / Chicago / Boston: The P.F. Volland Company, 1932. Fine in very good plus box.. Beautiful copy of this mystery story in the Raggedy Ann series, an early printing (with no known differentiation between first and early printings, per bibliographer Patricia Hall). First acclaimed on the scene of the Sunday comics with "Mr. Twee Deedle," Gruelle launched into fame with his Raggedy Ann series. The books were based upon a rag doll he had designed with bright red hair, though Gruelle "always considered Raggedy Ann and Andy to be, first and foremost, storybook characters, whose personas had been born and refined on the printed page" (Hall 17). Mixing the down to earth with the witty, the Raggedy Ann and Andy series also blend charming images for children with a Jazz Age sensibility.
Bibliographer Patricia Hall notes that "by 1928, Volland had abandoned" its traditional approach to marking later printings (which they called "editions"), and as a result, "one cannot assume that these Volland books of the late 1920s and early 1930s were first[s] just because they happen to be unstated" (Bibliography, 69). This is a lovely copy in exceptionally beautiful condition. 9'' x 6''. Original color pictorial boards with black cloth spine. In original color pictorial box. Pictorial endpapers. Illustrated by Gruelle in color throughout. Publisher's ads at rear listing 11 Raggedy Ann books. 94, [2] pages. Faint pencil inscription to base of box. With contemporary Volland promotional bookmark laid in. Light edgewear to box.