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 — the census claim is correct. 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…. 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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