2 Ludwig Bemelmans first editions are documented on this shelf, from Madeline (1939) to Madeline's Rescue (1953) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Ludwig Bemelmans title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Ludwig Bemelmans copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Madeline — 1939 · Simon & SchusterFirst edition: Simon & Schuster 1939; first issue is the larger format with first-state jacket lacking the Caldecott Honor mention (Honor 1940) and with its printed price. Copyright page shows 1939 and no later-printing statement. US Simon & Schuster is the true first. The pre-award jacket and 1939 dating mark the first issue; the book is notoriously hard to find in a fine first-issue jacket. Book-club and later printings reduce the trim, add award mentions, drop the price, and add a board blind-stamp.
Madeline's Rescue — 1953 · The Viking PressFirst printing: The Viking Press, New York, 1953, large quarto, [6], 7-56 pp., pictorial cloth with colour pictorial endpapers and pastedowns, in the priced colour pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the front flap. The copyright page must carry the Viking first-edition statement — 'First published by The Viking Press in 1953' (dealers report it as 'First Published' stated on the copyright page) —…. US-only true first: The Viking Press, New York, April 1953 — the census claim is correct. The first British edition followed from Derek Verschoyle, London, 1953 (the same house had issued the London 'Madeline' in 1952); a later London issue under the André Deutsch/Derek Verschoyle imprint dated 1957 is catalogued by dealers as an early printing of the British edition and is not a first of the text. Bemelmans was…. No book-club issue for the 1953 Viking printing is documented in the dealer census consulted, and no list of its tells was located — do not assert one. The operative reprint tell is on the copyright page: Viking added a printing notation beneath the 'First published' statement on all later printings, and later reissues drop the Viking Press imprint for Viking/Puffin/Penguin.

More Children's & YA shelves: Madeleine L'Engle, Margaret Wise Brown (illus. Clement Hurd), Marguerite Henry, Maurice Sendak, Mo Willems, Paula Fox.

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