Five on a Treasure Island 1st edition

[sixret]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Enid-Blyton- ... ctupt=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

£1.20 so far.

[Rob Houghton]

With no wrapper though, its not really worth more than about £8 in my view.

[IceMaiden]

The last one of those I saw a couple of months back went for £75. They are pretty expensive even without a dustjacket, I haven't managed to find one that's stayed reasonably low yet!

[Rob Houghton]

For me, I'd rather have an early edition with a dust wrapper.

[Courtenay]

Me too — I'd rather have an early but non-first edition with a good dust jacket than a first edition with no jacket, or one in tatters. As long as the content is the same as the first edition (which it will be in most cases), I reckon there's no real reason to buy a first edition unless you want to show off — or sell it on for an even bigger price than you paid for it.

[pete9012S]

With no wrapper though, its not really worth more than about £8 in my view.

I notice this is an August 1942 edition Rob. Wasn't there a September 1942 edition too?

Edit:
Found this info, it's probably in the cave too:

The first book appeared in September 1942 (dated August 1942) and was so popular that it was reprinted almost immediately in September and October of the same year. The book was illustrated by Eileen Soper, who was to illustrate all 21 titles, and whose drawings were so 'just right'.

Her original black and white line drawings, together with the coloured jackets fit perfectly with the stories. In the latest editions these original drawings have been used in colour.

https://stellabooks.com/information/eni ... nid-blyton" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rob Houghton]

I have the white spine version in a good dust jacket, but it was the last edition produced in the white spine, I think - 1950. Mind you, I'm not a fan of the white spine editions in general - prefer the picture spines, which I have a full set of.

[pete9012S]

Yes, there was not even a great deal of uniformity with the white spines editions either was there.
Still, back then they couldn't possibly have known how successful the series was going to be.

[sixret]

I think the mind of the true collector is hard to fathom. In their book, the first edition in pristine condition with pristine unclipped and original dust jacket is the topmost option. And it follows from there but the book must always be the first edition. Never less. In their view (the majority of the true collectors), the first edition in fair condition is considered an upgrade from the pristine second edition with dust jacket!

Where do I get this idea?

From Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books group. I have been a member of this group for many years and there have been quite a number of true collectors who collect children vintage books (mostly mystery/adventure/family/science fiction) only in this group.

My eyes will always be like whenever they show their collections or show the books that they have bought!!!

[Sue Sims]

Sixret - I agree totally. I'm not really a Blyton collector (I know - what am I doing in this group?) but a collector of girls' school stories, of which Blyton was, of course, an eminent producer. However, in my field, your ranking generally applies, though with the less serious collectors, a later edition with good dw would outrank a shabby first. I have an unpraiseworthy tendency to keep both! (It does help that my husband is a superb builder of bookshelves...) At present, for instance, I have a pretty bad 1st (1944) of Claudine at St Clare's with no dw, and also an almost fine reprint in dw - and unless I can find a very good copy of the 1st ed in dw, there they'll both remain.

I had a visitor yesterday, aso a girls' school story collector, who doesn't like dustwrappers. She retains enough of a conscience to store them in the loft, but even so...

[Rob Houghton]

If first editions in dust wrappers were easy to come by and cheap, then yeah - first editions would be my choice - but as long as the versions are 'complete' then I don't mind what edition they are. For example with the Famous Five books, I want a dust wrapper in good or very good condition, I want any colour plate to be present if there was originally one (basically the first 6 books, although the colour plate only appeared in the first edition of 'Five On Kirrin Island Again' as it was removed when the cover mistake was corrected), and I want end-paper illustrations to be in black and white and the added colour, rather than just the later black and white versions - the same with the internal illustrations, which must always have the coloured highlights if that's how they were produced.

Secret Seven are similar - I don't mind non-firsts, but the first 12 books must have the boards featuring children linking hands - sometimes red, sometimes blue etc depending on edition. The pale blue boards with 'SS' on them were only produced from 'Shock For the Secret Seven' onwards on first editions. I also want the added colour on the illustrations, if that was how the book first appeared.

Other than that...I'm very easy to please!!!!

[IceMaiden]

I'm not a serious collector where every or almost every edition must be a first, far from it and I certainly don't want to sell on. I collect purely for enjoyment and whilst a dustjacket looks nice and protects the book, it doesn't affect it's readability and I'd rather have a nice-ish copy without a jacket than no copy at all because a dj'd copy is either too hard to find or too expensive. With the Famous Five books however, there are so many variations I decided to try and collect the whole lot in first editions just for fun to see if I could, and as I've managed the others I'd like to get that last one to complete them because, well just because I'd like to see if I can finish the challenge I set myself .