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<<< Continued from previous page The Marquis 25 The first twenty-five books, listed here chronologically, nearly select themselves, no-brainers in common parlance. Proclaimed The Marquis Twenty-Five, each book is a children's classic, enjoyed for years by multiple generations. In most instances, the book's embrace by the reading public was not expected by the publisher, so the first printing is minuscule compared to the number of people who have enjoyed the book. The following chart provides a single line summary of the rationale for the book's selection, along with the estimated market price. The market price is for the first edition book with the corresponding first edition dust jacket, both in Very Good or VG+ condition. The list is sorted in chronological order. Click here to see the chart. Some comments on specific books:
The Marquis 25 - Scarcity Surprisingly, the first editions of a number of the books are quite scarce, even rare. Traditional booksellers consider a book to be rare if there are less than 10 known copies. Currently, this is difficult to assess with children's picturebooks since many libraries do not distinguish the first edition when cataloging their holdings. This is either due to the library not caring whether their copy is a first edition, or not knowing whether their copy is a first edition. The following books might be rare by the classic bookseller's definition (less than 10 know copies), and are certainly very difficult to find in first edition. Several are not currently on the market, or if offered, for a fairly rich price:
While not rare, several of the Marquis 25 are scarce in first edition. Collecting first edition contemporary American picturebooks is a fairly young hobby, without a high number of participants, and without much notoriety in the general population. Most people do not realize contemporary picturebooks have any value. As the hobby matures and the value system becomes somewhat stable, more people will enter the hobby, causing more booksellers to add contemporary American picturebooks as a focus area. When the number of collectors increase, and the number of specializing booksellers increase, one could anticipate an increase in the number of first editions examples. Additional first edition books might surface which otherwise would have been unattended, or discarded without significance into the used book market. Without this potential future influx, the following are currently scarce in first edition format:
The Marquis 25, Take Two Four Dr. Seuss books are in the Marquis 25, his first children's book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street (1937) along with three other of his most popular classics Cat In The Hat (1957), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), and Green Eggs And Ham (1960). Green Eggs And Ham was the fourth Alltime Bestselling Children's book according to Publisher's Weekly. Due to their high collectibility and relative notoriety among general antiquarian booksellers, several of the other Dr. Seuss first edition books are more valuable than many of the Marquis 25. Value was not the determining factor for inclusion in the Marquis 25. Referring to the Factors Affecting Collectibility, I rated each book across the eight different, but related factors. The chart, above, provides a single line summary of the rational for the book's selection in the Marquis 25 - a simple topline synthesis of the ratings. The following chart provides the 10-to-1 rating I gave each book along each factor, with 10 being a highly good thing. The market price is for the first edition book with the corresponding first edition dust jacket, both in Very Good or VG+ condition. The list is sorted in chronological order. Click here to see the chart. Over the course of the next couple of articles, as I build the list of the Top 100 Collectible Picturebooks, I will provide two charts similar to the above for each portion of the list. The first chart will provide the one line summary rationale for the book's inclusion, and the second chart will provide the 10-to-1 rating along each category. In the ensuing discussion, the reader will become acclimated to some of the objective information I used to give the subjective 10-to-1 rating. The next article in the series will present The Nearly No-Brainers.
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