Peter Pan Book With No Date???

Hi everyone!!! I bought this book at a estate sale and not doing to good on finding out anything about it. Let me first say the book cover is in bad shape, looks like someone has put tape on it to hold the cover together. It is a Peter Pan small book 6x4 with NO date?? It has like a etching in the front second page of Peter Pan and on the last page it has Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited Edinburgh. I seen one book printed by someone else in 1909 but it was totally different, with different cover and all. The cover that is not covered by tape feels like suede. How do you know when this was printed?? TIA for all the information.

 

Probably dates from about 1920. Peter Pan was initially a stage play, this is a version as what nowadays would be called 'the book of the film' and not really by Barrie at all.

 

Barrie's play debuted in 1904 and his novel was published in 1911 so your volume likely dates to sometime in-between.

Debora

 

A quick internet search using "Peter Pan" and "Drennan" as key words reveals that you volume was published in 1909.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...IHDAA#v=onepage&q="peter pan" drennan&f=false

Here is a sales advert for the American edition of your volume. Binding is described as "velvet calf" and it was originally boxed.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...=onepage&q="peter pan" drennan volume&f=false

I can't find another volume for sale on the internet and there are many Peter collectors (as there are for Alice) so you may have some luck with this.

Debora

 

Thanks for the find!! I'm just wondering why there is nothing else about this book and why doesn't it have a date, I thought all books had a date. It doesn't look like any pages are missing. It's in really bad shape as far has the cover goes, pages look good. Could it be rare or no?

 

It may be of interest to collector's of Peter Pan, but given the condition you are describing, I doubt it would be worth much.

 

I do apologize. I only saw Morrison & Gibb/Edinburgh and didn't realize they were the printer and not the publisher. Barse & Hopkins/New York is. There is another comparable on the internet and you can find it here for informational purposes only:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=barse+hopkins&sts=t&tn=peter+pan

(Keep in mind that this volume is unsold so asking price is directional only.)

Debora

 

Thanks Debora for all your help!! I wish they had showed the picture of the book. It looks like if they were trying to sell it they would show pictures?? The way they describe the book it sounds just like this one. I paid hardly nothing for it so that's good.

 

Book does indeed sound like yours but condition a bit better.

Debira

 

Others may tell me I'm wrong, but from my book-collecting days I recall that 1895 was a significant year dating-wise. After that year, most books had dates; though some might be undatred. Before then it was quite common for books to be undated, though some did have dates.

 

I had never heard this before. Interesting, and I'll look into it. Do you know of any sources to check for this?

One thing about dates... many books include only the copyright date, not the publication date. Just one example: I bought a copy of Carson McCullers' novel The Member of the Wedding. The only date in the copy I bought is the copyright date when the book was first published, which is 1946. However, the blurb in the book jacket refers to later things that happened, including that the novel was turned into a play that was published in book form in 1951. So, my copy dates from after that.

Dates on books are not straightforward as the date of publication. In the case of this Peter Pan book, Debora has found good information as she found a period advertisement. Sometimes these sorts of clues are the main way to find actual or near publication dates.

 

I want to say--- I'm new here and am impressed with how knowledgeable Debora is. I feel like I can learn quite a bit from this site! Thanks already!