# Is "The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles" by Maud and Miska Petersham a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Petersham (The Macmillan Company, 1945) is identified by: The Macmillan Company imprint, copyright 1945, with no later-printing notation. The US true first is the 1945 Macmillan issue.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The Macmillan Company imprint, copyright 1945, with no later-printing notation
- The first-issue dust jacket carries no Caldecott seal, as the medal was awarded in 1946
- The 1945 first printing contains the original full complement of illustrations, including two pages depicting African American children that were later removed
- Publisher imprint reads The Macmillan Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Maud and Miska Petersham |
| Publisher | The Macmillan Company |
| Year | 1945 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The Macmillan Company imprint, copyright 1945, with no later-printing notation |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The Macmillan Company imprint, copyright 1945, with no later-printing notation. The first-issue dust jacket carries no Caldecott seal, as the medal was awarded in 1946. The 1945 first printing contains the original full complement of illustrations, including two pages depicting African American children that were later removed.

## Is this the true first?
The US true first is the 1945 Macmillan issue. The book was revised in 1966, when two illustrations depicting Black children were dropped as offensive; revised printings carry this altered content and are not the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings add the Caldecott medallion to the jacket; post-1966 printings show the revised illustration set. The unrevised 1945 text and full illustration set distinguish the first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles* by Maud and Miska Petersham a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-rooster-crows-a-book-of-american-rhymes-and-jingles
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.