# Is "Little Fur Family" by Margaret Wise Brown (illustrated by Garth Williams) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown (illustrated by Garth Williams) (Harper & Brothers, 1946) is identified by: First 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. US-only true first: Harper & Brothers, New York, autumn 1946 — the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First 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 imitation fur or with no fur at all, so any copy in a larger trim, or in cloth/paper boards without genuine fur, is not the 1946 issue, and a copy without its box is incomplete as dealers describe it
- Harper's practice of the period places a two-letter month/year code on the copyright page (first letter = month, second = year; the year letter for 1946 is V), commonly alongside a 'FIRST EDITION' statement, so a fall-1946 first printing should show a code ending in -V. No dealer consulted quotes the actual code for this title, so treat the code as a confirmatory check on the copy in hand rather than as the primary point
- A copyright line naming Harper & Row is a post-1962 reprint and cannot be the first
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Brothers
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Margaret Wise Brown (illustrated by Garth Williams) |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
| Year | 1946 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First printing is identified by format and materials, not by a slug: the miniature book measures roughly 2¾ x 3¾ inches and is bound in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First 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 imitation fur or with no fur at all, so any copy in a larger trim, or in cloth/paper boards without genuine fur, is not the 1946 issue, and a copy without its box is incomplete as dealers describe it. Harper's practice of the period places a two-letter month/year code on the copyright page (first letter = month, second = year; the year letter for 1946 is V), commonly alongside a 'FIRST EDITION' statement, so a fall-1946 first printing should show a code ending in -V. No dealer consulted quotes the actual code for this title, so treat the code as a confirmatory check on the copy in hand rather than as the primary point. A copyright line naming Harper & Row is a post-1962 reprint and cannot be the first.

## Is this the true first?
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 warehouse and destroyed a large part of it — which is why intact fur-bound copies in the die-cut box are the fragile rarity the census flags, and why Harper switched to imitation fur and larger formats afterwards. Every subsequent Harper & Brothers, Harper & Row and HarperCollins reissue is 'first thus' at best.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Little Fur Family* by Margaret Wise Brown (illustrated by Garth Williams) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/little-fur-family
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.