Bob Bushtail’s Adventure, 1941, Series 401 (missing DJ)

Bob Bushtail’s Adventure, Ladybird, 1941, Series 401

This was the sixth of the Animal Rhyming stories of series of 401.  The 401 series is significant in the Ladybird story because these books were the first ones published in the format that was to become the classic Ladybird format: small size, with text on the left and a full-page illustration on the right. After the early 1940s, all the books in this series were written in jaunty rhyme by Walter Perring and were illustrated by Angusine Macgregor.  The effect of this rhyme was to lodge in the memory of the young child.  Ask anyone who enjoyed this book as a child and the chances are they can still quote parts of the rhyme decads later.

This copy:

This book is an early copy which has lost its original dustwrapper.  It has the colour pictur pasted on to the front cover of the book, something you only find on the earliest books.  It has a the line-drawing endpapers of early copies and the second pages state that it is a 3rd edition (1943) which is the first edition to have the Perring rather than the Coghlin rhyme.  This makes it a witness to the earliest years of classic Ladybird book production and a war-time survivor.  All it all it’t in pretty good shape for its years.  Small marks and blemishes, some pale foxing to the endpapers, a little discoloration to page tips – but nothing significant.

All in all a good copy of an, early book.