Baby’s First Book, series 413

Baby’s First Book was the 7th book to be published in series 413.  First published in 1954 it was one of the few books in that series that continued to be published well into the late 1960s.  It stayed in print for decades after this date – but was completely reillustrated several times, losing a lot of its charm on the way.  This is the original version with lovely, soft-hued illustrations by H Woolley.  It is very hard to find this book in good condition because it was designed for babies and toddlers – and always had a very hard life.  It is very much a picture book, with and illustration of an item of great familiarity to a 1960s baby – cot, biscuit, toy, banana, spoon etc and only a few words per page.

All copies of this book printed before 1965 were originally issued with a dustwrapper.

This copy:

This copy has matt boards.  It’s in good condition and is a hard-to-find book in this edition.  There are some blue pen marks on the back endpapers and another smaller one on the front endpapers but, unusually, the reading pages are still fresh and clean.  This copy dates to the 1960s and has the original prce of 2/6 printed on the back.