Skip to main content
Go to accessibility notice

    Description

    An L. Frank Baum Rarity: First Edition of Father Goose

    L. Frank Baum. Father Goose. His Book. Pictures by Wm. W. Denslow. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill Co., [1899]. First edition. Large quarto. Unpaginated.

    Original pictorial boards printed in yellow, orange, black, and white. Boards rubbed, browned and with some spotting. Very good. A nice copy of one of the rarest Baum titles, especially scarce in collectible condition.

    The first edition of Father Goose was published on September 25, 1899. To the astonishment of Hill and the delight of Baum and Denslow, it was so quickly sold out that a second edition of ten thousand copies was printed on October 16. By Christmas, 75,700 copies had been run off to meet the demand.

    On a single day, December 18, 1899, there were sold 3,934 copies. Nor did interest in the book die with the holiday season. During 1900 this best seller required the printing of an additional thirty thousand copies, and the Tribune reported in June, 1900, that "Father Goose, His Book last year achieved the record of having the largest sales of any juvenile in America."

    Father Goose with his old-fashioned skirted coat and twinkling eyes, like a comic Ben Franklin, was popular alike with the public and the book reviewers. "Father Goose is the new philosopher of the cradle and the fireplace," wrote the Times Herald. "As he comes in fancy masquerade, with clever yarns, bright ditties and assurances that the will take off from Mother's shoulders a good deal of work, give him double welcome."

    Father Goose set the pattern in some ways for the format of the Oz books that were to come.

    The "first significant American color-plate children's book." Schiller 21.


    Shipping, Taxes, Terms and Bidding
    Calculate Standard Domestic Shipping

    Sales Tax information  |  Terms and Conditions

    Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments

    Glossary of Terms

    Auction Info

    Auction Dates
    June, 2008
    4th-5th Wednesday-Thursday
    Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 1
    Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
    Page Views: 1,549

    Buyer's Premium per Lot:
    19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9) per lot.

    Sold for: Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

    Heritage membership

    Join Now - It's Free

    VIEW BENEFITS
    1. Past Auction Values (prices, photos, full descriptions, etc.)
    2. Bid online
    3. Free Collector newsletter
    4. Want List with instant e-mail notifications
    5. Reduced auction commissions when you resell your
      winnings 
    Consign now
    • Cash Advances
    • More Bidders
    • Trusted Experts
    • Over 200,000 Satisfied Consignors Since 1976
    Only 5 days left to consign to the 2019 March 15 Musical Instruments - Dallas!

    Learn about consigning with us

    This was my first time dealing with an auction house, and I am 100% completely impressed with Heritage. There is not an aspect of this process that I have a critique for.
    Darryl S.,
    Stuart, FL
    View More Testimonials

    HA.com receives more traffic than any other auction house website. (Source: Similarweb.com)

    Video tutorial

    Getting the most out of search

    Recent auctions

    2019 January 15 "Say it Loud" The John Silverstein Collection of African American Social History - Dallas
    2019 January 15 "Say it Loud" The John Silverstein Collection of African American Social History - Dallas
    REALIZED SO FAR $292,119
https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/children-s-books/l-frank-baum-father-goose-his-book-pictures-by-wm-w-denslow-chicago-geo-m-hill-co-1899-/a/683-57165.s
historical.ha.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-04
182232
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:WIEDC4HG4J2JL6FTBIDRMQBOZZ2I5RK5
<urn:uuid:eaf780c2-7272-474b-9da0-57cd45045c08>
2019-01-17T14:17:41Z
206.123.52.25
text/html
sha1:7DKL2HFK4CB2P3L4TUXGM2KBZXOEZHSQ
<urn:uuid:a1209b8b-53f8-4312-8f68-9ae5e5f65b90>
https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/children-s-books/l-frank-baum-father-goose-his-book-pictures-by-wm-w-denslow-chicago-geo-m-hill-co-1899-/a/683-57165.s
response
<urn:uuid:e3c01139-c94f-4483-9307-7f53cc01b10b>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-04
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-136-233-116.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/