# Is "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1963) is identified by: First-issue dust jacket carries NO Caldecott Medal seal on the front panel (the medal was awarded in 1964, after publication) and NO mention of the award on the rear flap. US Harper & Row, 1963, is the true first (the UK Bodley Head edition followed years later).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First-issue dust jacket carries NO Caldecott Medal seal on the front panel (the medal was awarded in 1964, after publication) and NO mention of the award on the rear flap
- Jacket points: the codes '40-80' and '1163' on the front flap (1163 = November 1963); price present on the flap; and three paragraphs of blurb on the front flap (about the story) with three on the rear flap (about Sendak)
- The title page carries Library of Congress catalog number 63-21253
- The price alone does NOT distinguish issues — the medal's absence and the three-paragraph flap do
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Row
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Maurice Sendak |
| Publisher | Harper & Row |
| Year | 1963 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First-issue dust jacket carries NO Caldecott Medal seal on the front panel (the medal was awarded in 1964, after publication) and NO… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First-issue dust jacket carries NO Caldecott Medal seal on the front panel (the medal was awarded in 1964, after publication) and NO mention of the award on the rear flap. Jacket points: the codes '40-80' and '1163' on the front flap (1163 = November 1963); price present on the flap; and three paragraphs of blurb on the front flap (about the story) with three on the rear flap (about Sendak). The title page carries Library of Congress catalog number 63-21253. The price alone does NOT distinguish issues — the medal's absence and the three-paragraph flap do.

## Is this the true first?
US Harper & Row, 1963, is the true first (the UK Bodley Head edition followed years later). The single most reliable point is a first-issue jacket with NO Caldecott Medal seal. After the 1964 Caldecott award the publisher recalled the edition and re-jacketed it with a medal jacket (now only two blurb paragraphs on the front flap, and the award noted on the rear), so a first-printing book can be found in either jacket — the no-medal jacket is the true first issue. Sendak-signed firsts are especially desirable.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A jacket bearing the gold Caldecott Medal seal is the second (post-1964) jacket issue — and because some first-printing sheets were recalled and re-jacketed this way, judge the book by its copyright/title-page points and judge the jacket by the medal. Book-club editions carry the medal, show no price on the flap, and are printed and bound more cheaply.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Where the Wild Things Are* by Maurice Sendak a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/where-the-wild-things-are
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.