Little Women

After an hour or so of searching the Internet, I finally discovered the (not solid) date of the publication of this edition of Little Women. It was published by A.L. Burt Company, 1911. It turns out that the illustrations have all been torn out of the book, along with the publishing information. This realization made me sad at first, but I'm over it now. The fine old smell of the aging pages melted all the sadness away. It's just SO lovely, regardless.

The Elms Vintage

My beautiful new old copy of Little Women.

The binding was stitched, not glued...

I really don't think that the book was published with a blue fore-edge, but I could be wrong.  See, new book vocabulary-fore-edge, the unbound edge of a book opposite the binding.

This is where the missing pages used to be-apparently they included photos of Katharine Hepburn, from the movie.

I love it more and more, the more I look at it.

I love vintage books.

     I found this lovely 1956 edition of Charles Dickens Oliver Twist ($5) at the right time for Bee to enjoy it. She does need to use the dictionary quite a bit to get through it, but seems to be enjoying it nevertheless. I don't want to spend too much money on establishing a vintage book collection, so I was happy to find this copy, regardless of the colored-on illustrations and stained pages.

     Literature and reading has always been a very important part of my life, allowing me to venture outside of my introverted mind as a child.  I have always been a shy person, although if you met me in person you probably wouldn't be able to tell. I suppose it's no surprise that my own little girl loves to read as much as I did.  I'm grateful that I can share my love of books and literature with her, and I'm relieved to be able to say she's not shy-maybe a little introverted, but definitely not shy.

Now I may try to find some more classics like this-Junior Deluxe Editions.

I love this classic style of illustration.

I actually really love the wear of the edges.

This is a happy surprise-Carisa is my middle name...it's kind-of unusual, and there it is!

Truly gorgeous color palette.

1956

I wonder if Carisa's baby brother did this.  If so, it wouldn't be so different from what may have occurred in my own life.

     I love the idea of being able to touch and hold something that another touched and held in another era, especially from before the time I was born in 1977. It sometimes creeps me out at the same time, because honestly, who is to say what happened to the person who owned something in the past. It may have been in a sad and dark environment. That's the flip side of owning vintage items. Still, I enjoy the way it spurs my imagination, and takes me outside of myself.