2 Virginia Lee Burton first editions are documented on this shelf, from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939) to The Little House (1942) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Virginia Lee Burton 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 Virginia Lee Burton copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel — 1939 · Houghton MifflinHoughton Mifflin's house practice of the period is the identifying method, and it is negative rather than stated: the date 1939 appears in arabic numerals on the title page of first printings and is removed on subsequent printings, and the copyright page carries no later-printing statement and no later date (Houghton Mifflin only began consistently printing a 'first printing' statement in the late 1950s). Format…. US true first confirmed: Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1939, and it is the sole first — no earlier or simultaneous British or foreign-language edition is documented in the sources consulted, and non-US editions are later. The census claim of a US-only true first stands as written; there is no UK-vs-US precedence question for this title. No 1939-era book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The routine confusions are (a) later Houghton Mifflin printings, told by removal of the 1939 date from the title page and/or a later-printing notice on the copyright page — dealers catalogue printings well into the twenties; (b) Scholastic and similar paperback reprints from the 1970s onward, which carry ISBNs; and (c) a first-printing book….
The Little House — 1942 · Houghton Mifflin CompanyHoughton Mifflin Company imprint; copyright 1942. The decisive first-printing point is the presence of '1942' on the TITLE page (the date flanks the central flower); the second printing (May 1943) is otherwise identical but removes the '1942' from the title page. The first-issue dust jacket front flap carries the printed price (verify presence of the original price, not the figure for valuation). Oblong quarto in…. US true first is the 1942 Houghton Mifflin issue identified by '1942' on the title page. Later printings remove the title-page date; reprints add the Caldecott seal to the jacket. Book-club issues are smaller in format and often lack the original priced flap.

More Children's & YA shelves: William Steig, A. A. Milne (illustrated by E. H. Shepard), Astrid Lindgren, Beatrix Potter, Beverly Cleary, Brian Selznick.

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