# Is "Madeline's Rescue" by Ludwig Bemelmans a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans (The Viking Press, 1953) is identified by: First 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. US-only true first: The Viking Press, New York, April 1953 — the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First 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) — with 1953 on the title page and NO notation of any subsequent printing
- Viking's practice of the period was to state the first publication and then add a 'Second printing'/'Third printing' line to reprints, so any such line disqualifies the copy
- The jacket point is chronological: the Caldecott Medal was awarded in 1954, after publication, so a gold Caldecott medal printed into the front panel indicates a later jacket; an applied foil seal proves nothing
- Caution on cloth: dealers describe the binding variously as red pictorial cloth, dark red cloth stamped in black, and (in one listing) grey cloth with a red-orange drawing — the descriptions conflict, so do not rely on cloth colour alone; the copyright-page statement is the point
- Publisher imprint reads The Viking Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ludwig Bemelmans |
| Publisher | The Viking Press |
| Year | 1953 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First printing: The Viking Press, New York, 1953, large quarto, [6], 7-56 pp., pictorial cloth with colour pictorial endpapers and… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First 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) — with 1953 on the title page and NO notation of any subsequent printing; Viking's practice of the period was to state the first publication and then add a 'Second printing'/'Third printing' line to reprints, so any such line disqualifies the copy. The jacket point is chronological: the Caldecott Medal was awarded in 1954, after publication, so a gold Caldecott medal printed into the front panel indicates a later jacket; an applied foil seal proves nothing. Caution on cloth: dealers describe the binding variously as red pictorial cloth, dark red cloth stamped in black, and (in one listing) grey cloth with a red-orange drawing — the descriptions conflict, so do not rely on cloth colour alone; the copyright-page statement is the point.

## Is this the true first?
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 an American author published from New York, and the Viking issue is the collected first. Inventory note carried from the census: only the 1939 'Madeline' is held, not this title. Later Viking, Puffin and Penguin reissues (e.g. ISBN 9780140566512) are reprints.

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

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Madeline's Rescue* by Ludwig Bemelmans a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/madelines-rescue
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.