THE UNFINISHED HOUSE: Judy Bolton Mystery #11. by Sutton, Margaret - (1938.)

New York:: Grosset & Dunlap,, (1938.). Hardcover first edition -. Good overall in lime green cloth, with purple lettering on front and spine, and open door illustration on front cover (corners bumped, spine slightly slanted. First or very early printing. My favorite series as a young girl: I liked them for the realism: Judy starts out as a high school girl, has some of the usual problems all kids encounter including misunderstandings among friends, etc, is a little older and more mature in each book - in fact, she gets married, and eventually she and her husband even adopt a child. Although I didn't know any of the history of the series at the time I was reading them, the 'mysteries' are mostly based on actual events, the town is the town where Sutton grew up and unlike most of the other series books published by Grosset and Dunlap, this was not part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Margaret Sutton was a real woman, writing under her own name. Because of the opposition of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, this series did not have the extensive reprinting that the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys had. This copy is in the hard to find thicker original format with pink illustrated 'flashlight' or 'staircase' endpapers. Lists to itself at the front of the book. Glossy frontispiece by Pelagie Doane, top edge tinted burgundy. 250 pp