Goodnight Moon.

The identification of the first state jacket has engendered much debate. The price does not work since the projected price of $2.95 was cut to $2.50 before publication; the author's own copy for example is also price-clipped. However, the first STATE has the ad for Little Fur Family on the rear flap and, what is less well-known, the imprint on the rear panel should read 'HARPER & BROTHERS - NEW YORK & LONDON' (later copies lack '& LONDON').

Now, the present copy has neither of these points and is palpably a later issue. However, to this cataloguer's mind, this is still likely within the first printing since there was a need for the overstamped price, as well as the often overlooked fact that the first edition sold very slowly (hard to imagine given the book's fame). Copies in any issue jacket of the early printing of Goodnight Moon are rare.

Elizabeth Pyle may well be the children's book illustrator - her bookplate features a number of characters from Pinocchio, to Dumbo and Alice.

First edition, first printing; small oblong 4to; attractive bookplate of Elizabeth Pyle to verso of the front free endpaper, patch of browning to the front free endpaper, from the bookseller's price sticker; publisher's pictorial boards printed in blue green red and yellow, with the second state pictorial dust jacket, jacket price-clipped by publisher with their over stamp of $2.50 as issued, a little rubbed and frayed, with minor loss at the corners and some fading at the spine.