Mary Poppins

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. Fine in Very Good- dj. (c.1934). Later Printing. Hardcover. [a nice clean book with no disernible wear; the jacket has several tears at the top edge and corners but very little in the way of paper loss, although the original owner's name is printed neatly in the lower left corner of the front panel, parallel to the spine; still quite presentable in its new mylar cover]. (pen & ink drawings) The first Mary Poppins story, in a bibliographically confusing vintage edition. There is no printing specified on the copyright page, but it's not an early (1930s) printing because it's bound in textured tan cloth (the first, and many subsequent, printings were in blue cloth); in addition, the unclipped jacket has a printed price of $2.50 on the front flap, which dates it in the 1950s (the publisher's list price in 1934 was $1.50, and was still only $2.00 as late as 1949). What seems odd to me, however, is that there's a blurb on the rear jacket flap for the second M.P. book ("Mary Poppins Comes Back"), published in 1935, but not the third one ("Mary Poppins Opens the Door"), published in 1943; if this printing is from the 1950s (as the $2.50 price proves it is), why not promote the entire series -- all of which appeared in the U.S. under the Reynal & Hitchcock imprint? (Further regarding the date: Reynal & Hitchcock was merged with Harcourt, Brace & Co. in early 1948; it was stated at the time that books with the R&H imprint would continue to appear "from time to time" -- the M.P. books apparently being one of those times.) 'Tis all a puzzlement, as another fictional character once said. At any rate, this is an attractive vintage copy of the introductory M.P. tale -- with the racially-insensitive depictions in the "Bad Tuesday" chapter still unaltered, so be warned if you're planning on reading it aloud to your grandchildren. . (Inventory #: 30029)