Tale of Peter Rabbit, The

Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company, 1904. First American Printing of Peter Rabbit
In the Original Printed Dust Jacket

POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Altemus' Wee Books for Wee Folks. Thirty-one Illustrations. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company, 1904.

First American edition, first printing.

Sixteenmo. [3]-127, [3, blank] pp., including thirty-one color plates after the designs by Potter. With black and white rabbit vignette on half-title.

Original green cloth, cover stamped pictorially in black, white, blue, and red, spine and front cover lettered in red. Beige and white pictorial endpapers, (truncated) not of Potter's design. Original beige dust jacket, printed in black, with Altemus ad on back panel, Peter Rabbit picture and lettering on front, and "Altemus' Wee Books for Wee Folks No. 3" lettered on spine. Jacket chipped at spine extremities, with slight loss, and very lightly browned. Small and inoffensive stain on rear free-endpaper. With a Christmas, 1904 ink inscription on half-title "'Merry Christmas'/for /Agnessita/from Aunty Jane/1904". A wonderful copy of this juvenile classic in the exceptionally rare dust jacket. Housed in a black cloth clamshell case.

"When Frederick Warne first published Peter Rabbit in London [in 1902], they sent a few copies to their firm in New York where, due to a misunderstanding, they were unfortunately sold before copyright was properly obtained. And for that reason the copyright for the book remains to this day in 'public domain' in the United States" (Quinby, p. 18). Altemus was the first to take advantage of this situation, copying the text and illustrations from Warne and issuing in 1904 not only the first pirated edition, but also the first edition printed in America. This edition was reprinted for several years without changing the date on the title-page; consequently, the 1904 inscription is the only sure way of identifying the first printing.

Quinby 2c. Linder, p. 109. V&A 1640 (fourth printing only). (Inventory #: 06088)