3 Margaret Wise Brown (illus. Clement Hurd) first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Runaway Bunny (1942) to Goodnight Moon (1947) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Margaret Wise Brown (illus. Clement Hurd) 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 Margaret Wise Brown (illus. Clement Hurd) copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Runaway Bunny — 1942 · Harper & BrothersFirst edition, first printing: 'FIRST EDITION' stated on the copyright page with the Harper code 'M-Q'. Bound in green cloth with lettering on the upper board. The first-state dust jacket advertises 'The Runaway Bunny' on the front flap and carries 'When the Wind Blew' and a 'Little Fur Family' advertisement on the rear flap, with the rear-panel imprint reading 'Harper & Brothers, New York & London'. Harper & Brothers (New York) is the true first. Clement Hurd, dissatisfied with his original art, redrew his illustrations for a revised edition issued by Harper & Row in 1972; that revised edition is a separate 'first thus' and not the true first. The 1972 revised edition and book-club copies are distinct from the 1942 first. A Harper & Row imprint or the redrawn color illustrations indicate the later edition, not the true first.
- Little Fur Family — 1946 · Harper & BrothersFirst printing is identified by format and materials, not by a slug: the miniature book measures roughly 2¾ x 3¾ inches and is bound in real rabbit fur over paper boards, and it was issued in a lidded pictorial cardboard box with a round die-cut hole in the top through which the fur is exposed and can be touched. The fur binding and the box are the operative points — later editions were made larger and bound in…. US-only true first: Harper & Brothers, New York, autumn 1946. No simultaneous or prior British edition surfaced; the book is collected as an American first. The famous point here is one of issue and survival rather than edition: only the 1946 printing carries genuine New Zealand rabbit fur (Brown insisted on it), the printing ran to roughly 50,000 copies, and moths got into Harper's warehouse and destroyed a…. No book-club issue is documented. The reprint tells for this title are format-driven rather than copyright-page-driven: imitation fur or plain boards in place of real fur, a larger trim, absence of the die-cut display box, and a Harper & Row or HarperCollins imprint on the copyright page each mark a later edition.
- Goodnight Moon — 1947 · Harper & BrothersThere is no reliable copyright-page point: the 1947 Harper & Brothers first edition carries no printing statement, so the firmest identifiers are the title-page imprint and the dust jacket. The title page must read 'Harper & Brothers' (not 'Harper & Row', which indicates a later printing), with a green cloth spine over flat (non-glossy) boards. The first-state jacket shows the imprint 'HARPER & BROTHERS - NEW…. US Harper & Brothers 1947 is the true first. The base title is already in the live index; this entry records the title-page imprint and first-state jacket points. True first printings cannot be conclusively distinguished from the text alone, so jacket evidence is essential. Later printings show 'Harper & Row' on the title page; many surviving copies are later printings. The original-issue jacket points (the 'NEW YORK & LONDON' imprint and the 'Little Fur Family' rear-flap advertisement) are absent on later jackets.
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