Reader asks about Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are”

Each Friday, I answer readers’ questions about items they have. I’m not able to assess the values of their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started.

I’ve chosen only one question this week because it’s about one of my favorite books – Maurice Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are.” I love illustrated children’s books and this is one of the best.

Question:

I have a signed copy of “Where the Wild Things Are” but no dust jacket. I would like to sell it. I was told by a children’s rare book dealer that it was a first edition.

Answer:

Interestingly, I also have a 1963 first-edition copy of the book – without the dust jacket and unsigned – but I’ve never tried to figure out what it is worth. I love the story and the illustrations, and when I saw the book in a box lot at an auction two years ago, I knew I just had to have it.

I’m a big fan of Sendak and was able to see a retrospective exhibit of his works at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, which has his collection of 10,000 drawings. Sendak died in May at the age of 83.

Your inquiry gave me an opportunity to figure out the first-edition status of both of our books and whether their values were closer to $30 than $3,000. Your book is missing a dust jacket, and that diminishes the price for a true collector. It is signed, which I would assume is a plus. It also has some smudges and wear on the front, and spots on the back.

I Googled to find out what the book was selling for now – because prices do change depending on who wants an item at a given time – at online bookstores, on eBay or anywhere else books are sold on the web.

The book was first published in 1963 by Harper Row & Co., and has always been immensely popular both nationally and internationally. More than 19 million copies have been sold of the story of Max and the monsters he encountered on a journey sparked by anger. The book won the Caldecott Award as the most distinguished picture book in 1964.

In May, abebooks.com sold a first-edition signed copy for $25,000 – considerably higher than the $10,000 that other excellent first editions had sold for. According to a spokesman for the bookseller, most children’s picture books do not bring such a high price – a warning, it seemed, for us not to expect that to happen anytime soon.

Many people have been searching for the book in light of Sendak’s death, and that normally happens after an author dies, the spokesman said. Also in May, the bookseller sold a 1964 signed copy with a loose Sendak sketch for $4,195 and several other copies for $500.

Abebooks.com has more than half-a-dozen copies of the first-edition book for sale, the highest priced at $35,750 (it came with loose drawings by Sendak) and the lowest at $64.35. Each of the books had a description offering details on its classification as a first edition.

There seemed to have been a number of first-edition issues of the book, and the most valuable part appeared to be the dust jacket.

The definitive resource on identifying Sendak’s masterpiece is Joyce Y. Hanrahan’s “Works of Maurice Sendak, Revised & Expanded to 2001: A Collection With Comments.”

Several websites cited her classification of what some called a “true” first edition: A dust jacket with no mention of the Caldecott medal, front and back jacket flaps with three paragraphs of text about the story, and the text “Harper & Row, Publishers/ 40-80/ 1163.”

According to abebooks.com, the entire first edition was recalled after the book won the Caldecott Award. The gold medal and the achievement were apparently noted on the new jacket. I found several dust jackets on the web with the gold disc affixed to the top right corner (later editions had it at the bottom left).

Another distinguishing characteristic of the earlier first edition was a price of $3.50 on the upper front flap of the jacket. By the third issue, the noted price was $3.95, according to abebooks.com.

Sale prices for the book were all over the place. A first-edition copy with the dust jacket and the Library of Congress notation (like yours) but without the Caldecott medal sold at a 2010 auction in San Francisco for $4,000. Rarelibrary.com was selling one with the Caldecott seal and mention of the award for $1,749.95.

The books were not doing too well on eBay, where one went unsold at $800 (it had no jacket and the seller provided very little info about the copyright text). Three offers that apparently didn’t rise to the seller’s asking price of $250 seemed to have been rejected. A 1991 edition with a dust jacket sold for $99.

An unsigned book with no dust jacket but with copyright information similar to yours sold for $28.55. One like mine sold for $26, and I suspect that mine is a later edition. An inscription in ink indicated that it was given in 1980 as a gift.

Your first step is to determine definitively what edition of the book that you have. I would recommend that you locate Hanrahan’s book at the local library or bookstore, flip through it and find a “Wild Things” copy that matches yours.

Ask the children’s rare book dealer to assess it for you, not necessarily for him/her to sell it but to get knowledgeable information from an expert.

As for selling the book, I’d find a reputable bookseller or auction house in your town (research the company on the web) to sell the book for you. Try to find one that specializes in rare books. Keep in mind that you’ll have to pay a fee for the sale. Also try abebooks.com, which buys books – keeping in mind, again, that it’s a company that sells books so it won’t pay retail for yours.

You could try eBay, although it seems that books don’t normally sell well on the site.

If other readers have any suggestions, please mention them in the comments box below.