# Is "The Little Engine That Could" by Watty Piper (Arnold Munk); illustrated by Lois Lenski a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper (Arnold Munk); illustrated by Lois Lenski (Platt & Munk, 1930) is identified by: First edition, first state (Variant A in the Children's Picturebook Price Guide census) is established by four points taken together. Platt & Munk, New York, 1930 is confirmed as the first edition of this book — the Watty Piper (Arnold Munk) retelling illustrated by Lois Lenski, the title page crediting the retelling from 'The Pony Engine' by Mabel C.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first state (Variant A in the Children's Picturebook Price Guide census) is established by four points taken together
- Book: red boards with the pictorial paste-down to the front cover, carrying two lines at the lower left of the front cover beginning 'No
- 358.'; the 'NEVER GROW OLD SERIES' box on the verso of the front free endpaper lists exactly nine titles, opening with 'The Rooster, the Mouse and the Little Red Hen' and closing with 'The Little Engine That Could'; no 'Trade Mark' beneath the title on the title page; and a four-line copyright page reading 'Copyright, 1930, / By / The Platt & Munk Co., Inc. / MADE IN THE U.S.A.' with no second
- copyright date
- Jacket (first state, 'a'): both front and rear flaps entirely blank/unprinted, and the rear panel advertising only four Platt & Munk titles
- The endpaper series-list point alone is the common shortcut among booksellers and is not sufficient — it survives into later states
- Publisher imprint reads Platt & Munk

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Watty Piper (Arnold Munk); illustrated by Lois Lenski |
| Publisher | Platt & Munk |
| Year | 1930 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First edition, first state (Variant A in the Children's Picturebook Price Guide census) is established by four points taken together |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, first state (Variant A in the Children's Picturebook Price Guide census) is established by four points taken together. Book: red boards with the pictorial paste-down to the front cover, carrying two lines at the lower left of the front cover beginning 'No. 358.'; the 'NEVER GROW OLD SERIES' box on the verso of the front free endpaper lists exactly nine titles, opening with 'The Rooster, the Mouse and the Little Red Hen' and closing with 'The Little Engine That Could'; no 'Trade Mark' beneath the title on the title page; and a four-line copyright page reading 'Copyright, 1930, / By / The Platt & Munk Co., Inc. / MADE IN THE U.S.A.' with no second (1925) copyright date. Jacket (first state, 'a'): both front and rear flaps entirely blank/unprinted, and the rear panel advertising only four Platt & Munk titles. The endpaper series-list point alone is the common shortcut among booksellers and is not sufficient — it survives into later states.

## Is this the true first?
Platt & Munk, New York, 1930 is confirmed as the first edition of this book — the Watty Piper (Arnold Munk) retelling illustrated by Lois Lenski, the title page crediting the retelling from 'The Pony Engine' by Mabel C. Bragg. It is emphatically not the first appearance of the story: recognizable versions circulated from the early 1900s, 'The Pony Engine' appeared under Mary C. Jacobs (1910) and Mabel C. Bragg (1916), and the title 'The Little Engine That Could' first saw print in 1920 in volume 1 of My Book House. There is no UK or original-language precedence issue. The 1954 Platt & Munk edition re-illustrated by George and Doris Hauman is a different book, not a printing of this one — a first-thus trap, and the version most people picture.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Platt & Munk reprinted the Lenski book continuously to 1949 and the later states are censused (six board variants A-F, eight jacket states a-h). Reprint tells: 'TRADE MARK' added beneath the title (state E); the Never Grow Old Series list extended to include 'Lil' Hannibal' (added 1937/38); the two-line 'No. 358' cover notation reduced to a single line or dropped; and a copyright page showing both 1925 and 1930 (state F). Later jackets print copy on the flaps, list six titles rather than four on the rear panel, and add a synopsis beginning 'This little classic of childhood is one of the most popular stories ever published.' A boxed issue in blue cloth with a black cloth spine and a front-cover paste-down matching the box illustration was also produced and was issued without a jacket — a different issue, not a later state to be scored against the jacketed points. No true book-club edition is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Little Engine That Could* by Watty Piper (Arnold Munk); illustrated by Lois Lenski a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-little-engine-that-could
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.