Where the Wild Things Are. by SENDAK, Maurice - 1963

New York: Harper & Row,, 1963. Oblong quarto. Original cloth-backed pictorial paper boards. With the Sendak designed dust jacket. Illustrated by Sendak. Occasional spotting to pages, small pencil notes to two pages, which list the names of the Wild Things, light rubbing to corners, in the dust jacket with toning to white areas, light spotting along rear panel edges, short closed tears to front edges, lower corner to front flap clipped as issued, 3.50 price still intact at upper portion. A very good copy. First edition, first printing, first issue. There seem to be multiple issues of the first printing of this elusive and important book. Variations in price occur throughout the later states but have no bearing on the status of the true first issue. Primacy is established through the text of the blurb which, as in the present copy, makes no mention of the Caldecott Award bestowed upon the book on publication. The winning of such a prestigious prize compelled the publishers to recall the entire edition and change the text on the dust wrapper to include the achievement. Copies therefore with the original blurb are rare and are indubitably the earliest. Grolier Club, One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature, 97.