First Printing of the First Edition

"Raggedy Ann's Lucky Pennies", written and illustrated by Johnny Gruelle, published and copyright by John Gruelle 1932. All points of the first printing are present: "Volland" is stated on title page; "Copyright 1932 by John Gruelle" without any printing stated on the copyright page. High quality of fine color illustrations which can be found only in this first edition.

Several printings were issued, but ONLY the first Volland Printing has "COPYRIGHT BY VOLLAND" without any other printing information on the copyright page

.Note: "DONOHUE" editions were published after the first Volland edition.

John Barton Gruelle (1880-1938) was an artist, political cartoonist, and writer of children's books. Johnny Gruelle's first book commission came in 1914, a set of illustrations for an ambitious volume of Grimms' fairy tales. Johnny Gruelle is best known for creating Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, the whimsical dolls and storybook characters that escorted him to national prominence in only several years' time.

By 1918, Gruelle had sold his first volume of Raggedy Ann Stories to the Chicago based P. F. Volland Company and by fall of that year the first editions were rolling off the presses. The book's covers featured front-and-back views of a Raggedy Ann doll, which the Volland Company had also begun producing to sell along with the books. Two years later, in 1920, Johnny Gruelle created Raggedy Andy, who made his literary debut in his own volume, "Raggedy Andy Stories", and also joined Raggedy Ann as a commercially available Volland doll. These events set Johnny Gruelle squarely on the path to becoming a well-known children's author and illustrator

Gruelle's early artistic style is romantic, almost dreamlike, and his use of color borrows heavily from the gold-and-violet palettes of his father and other early-twentieth-century American fine artists. His later illustrations are bright and fluid. Facial expressions and body movements, be they of dwarfs, fairies, dolls, or mortals, are crisply captured with pen and brush.

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Priority (c 2-6 weeks) -- $27.50
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Priority (c 2-8 weeks) -- $37.50
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Hard boards (a little wear and soiling); cloth spine; 6" x 9.1/4"; 94 pages + one page add for other Raggedy Ann books; the endpapers are fine and not creased at the hinges, no inscriptions, a couple small edge creases (up to 1/4"), very good binding, nice pages with some soiling and a little wear, good+/very good condition. [mgfa]