The first hardback book I remember buying myself was A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, for the princely sum of $3.25 in 1975. I remember seeing this book in the window display of a children’s bookshop in Mission Bay, Auckland.
I was living with my grandparents for a year while my parents were overseas, and they had sent me some money for Christmas. I spent the bulk of it on this book, and it still sits in my book case today. I thought the cover quite the most beautiful I’d seen. I had first been entranced by this story when I saw on TV the Shirley Temple movie adaptation from 1939.
My edition of The Little Princess was published by Platt & Munk in 1967, though I didn’t buy it until 1975. The dust jacket says the artist is Stewart Sherwood, a 24-year-old Canadian, who despite his youth had already won many awards for advertising art and had been published in books and magazines across the US and Europe. (Googling Sherwood reveals he is still an artist, painting designs for books, cards and collectable plates. You can see more of his artwork here). This is why I always like books with dust jackets: they contain information not elsewhere in the book. One library I frequent infuriates me by removing all the dust jackets, instead of covering them and leaving them with the book.
I saved my pocket money to buy books from the age of seven. Dad gave me 10c a week, pitiful even in those days. My parents didn’t really believe in the concept of pocket money, but conceded this miserly amount when I insisted. I then made a case that, because I was older than my brother, I should receive more than him. Dad reluctantly gave me 11c a week, provided I never divulged the raise to my brother. How I wanted to gloat to my brother…but couldn’t, lest the extra 1c be removed.
This edition, published in 1970 by Green Knight (but first published in 1942 by Hodder & Stoughton) has a list of prices for different countries of the British commonwealth on the back: UK 3/- (shillings) or 15p, Australia and New Zealand 45c, South Africa 40c, Canada 65c. The book was illustrated by Eileen Soper (1905-1990), who was also a writer and illustrator of children’s books in her own right, and a founding member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in the UK.
My favourite paperbacks were the Famous Five and Secret Seven series, written by Enid Blyton in the 1940s. I loved the idea in them that children could make a difference, could have a whole world beyond the realm of their parents, and could go on exciting adventures without the presence of adults.
I always keep price tags on the books I buy, and have done since I was a child, because I find pricing very interesting years later.
I still have one of the first books I bought, Five on a Treasure Island, which the back cover tells me cost 45c in the early 1970s. I had to save my pocket money for five weeks to buy one of these (with enough change to buy several 3c lemonade ice-blocks in the summer). I would read the book in a day, then read the best bits again, and prepare for the almost interminable wait of five weeks between purchases. It was always worth the wait!
The Crayon Files 
Caron – Oh, you’ve reminded me me of some happy moments when I was young. I read A Little Princess several times as a child. And of course, Enid Blyton was the start of a lifelong love affair with reading for so many people.. 🙂
Yes, I thought A Little Princess was the most magical story. I especially liked the part where her room was transformed. And Blyton was my favourite author. I’ve written before about how I oppose the re-editing of her books. I think an author can re-edit their own books in their lifetime, but after they are gone, their work shouldn’t be changed.
PS—I noticed I inadvertently named the book The Little Princess rather than A Little Princess. Have corrected it! Don’t you just hate it when you don’t pick up the mistake while editing, yet it stands out horribly as soon as you look at the published page?
Oh, I know what you mean! That happens to me with every post I write.
What great memories!
I don’t remember the very first hardcover book I ever bought with my own money, but I do remember buying some hardcover “Bobbsey Twins” books at a garage sale when I was pretty young. I loved those books and read them over and over again.
I never read “A Little Princess” but I loved “The Secret Garden” by the same author.
I am just the opposite of you when it comes to price tags–I always remove them just as soon as I bring my book purchases home!
Yes, The Secret Garden is a wonderful book, too. I also read lots of books at my grandparents’ place that had belonged to my father, including the Hardy Boys mysteries.
Isn’t that interesting? Since childhood I have always “re-read the best bits” and I still do. And I also used my allowance for books.
And I still use any extra money I have to buy books…and art equipment these days. I recently bought a new copy of a book I had as a child and loved. It was “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” When I was 11, this was the greatest book in the world. I wasn’t even religious, but the book spoke to me in many ways, and I loved re-reading it.
I do too. People think I’m mad when I tell them I re-read books but I love doing it.
lovely memories from an early lover of literature )
Thank you. I’ve always thought of books as terribly exciting. I came across a quotation from one of New Zealand’s greatest writers, the late Janet Frame, the other day, that sums it up. This is from an essay she wrote in 1965, called Beginnings: “In my family, words were revered as instruments of magic”.
oh what a lovely view of the world of language