Duck and his Friends - Little Golden Book

Author : K. and B. Jackson

Illustrator : Richard Scarry

Edition : (82) (Sydney)

Copyright : 1972

Format : Hardcover

Condition : Used. Very good - Fine

Notes : Name in name plate. General wear. Sticky mark on front inside cover. Some damage to back cover.

Dimensions : 20cm x 17cm x 0.5cm

About Little Golden Books

Little Golden Books is a popular series of children's books. The first 12 titles were published October 1, 1942:

1. Three Little Kittens
2. Bedtime Stories
3. Mother Goose
4. Prayers for Children
5. The Little Red Hen
6. Nursery Songs
7. The Alphabet from A to Z
8. The Poky Little Puppy
9. The Golden Book of Fairy Tales
10. Baby's Book of Objects
11. The Animals of Farmer Jones
12. This Little Piggy and Other Counting Rhymes

As of 2005, 15 million copies of The Poky Little Puppy have been sold, including copies in various languages.

The Little Golden Books, which initially sold for 25¢, were published by Simon and Schuster in cooperation with the Artist and Writers Guild, Inc. headed by Georges Duplaix. Duplaix had initially thought up the idea for the Little Golden Book series and fleshed it out in conversations with officials at Simon and Schuster. Dr. Mary Reed a professor at the Teachers College of Columbia University served as initial editor of the series.

Western Printing and Lithographing Company in Racine, Wisconsin, was Simon and Schuster's partner in the Little Golden Books venture. Western handled the actual printing. In 1958, Simon and Schuster sold its interest in Little Golden Books to Western.

Ownership and control of the series has changed several times since. In 2001, Random House acquired Golden Books for about 85 million dollars.

Although the Little Golden Books have remained the backbone of the product line, the enterprise that produced the Little Golden Books has created a variety of children's books in various formats including records, tapes, videos, and even toys and games (the fourth and fifth as "Golden & Design"). Some titles have appeared in several different formats (including but not limited to "A Golden Book").

Many popular authors and illustrators have worked on Little Golden Books and related products including:

* Mary Blair
* Margaret Wise Brown
* Tibor Gergely
* Corinne Malvern
* Jim McDermott
* Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen
* Bob Staake
* Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky
* Patricia Scarry and Richard Scarry
* Gustaf Tenggren
* Jane Werner Watson
* Eloise Wilkin
* Garth Williams
* Herbert Zim

Although the details have changed over the years, the Little Golden Books have maintained a distinctive appearance. A copy of The Poky Little Puppy bought today is essentially the same as one printed in 1942. Both are readily recognizable as Little Golden Books. At the time of the golden anniversary, Golden Books claimed that a billion and a half Little Golden Books had been sold.

Some Little Golden Books and related products have featured popular children's icons from other media, eg. Sesame Street, the Muppets, Disney, Barbie, Power Rangers, etc. Television and movie tie-ins have been particularly popular. Over the years Hopalong Cassidy, Cheyenne, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers, and even Donny and Marie have appeared in Little Golden Books.

Many have dealt with nature and science, Bible stories, nursery rhyme, and fairy tales. Christmas titles are popular every year. The fact that many old titles remain in print shows the strong nostalgia appeal of Little Golden Books.

The official Random House website contains an interesting timeline for Little Golden Books.

In the year 2000, Encore Software produced a series of "Little Golden Books" titles for CD Rom, including the Poky Little Puppy, Mother Goose, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Velveteen Rabbit, Tootle, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant. These 6 individual titles were some of the first major software releases to be produced entirely in Macromedia Flash. They appeared in Time Magazine as part of an article entitled How to Raise a Superkid.

About Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry was an author and illustrator of children's books for over thirty years. Born on June 5, 1919, he died in 1994 at the age of 75. He published over three hundred hundred books. A very private person, he gave few interviews over the years.

Richard Scarry was born in Boston. His father owned a store, and the family lived in comfortable circumstances, even during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Scarry was raised in the atmosphere of love, care and respect, which is reflected in his books. From 1939 to 1942 he studied art at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts School. He served in the army as an art director, editor, and writer of information publications in North Africa and Italy.

After the war Scarry worked in New York as a free-lance illustrator. In 1948 he married Patricia Murphy. His first book, Two Little Miners, was published in the popular Little Golden Book series in 1949. It was followed by five other children's books, published by Simon and Schuster in the same year.

In the 1950s Scarry illustrated and wrote for Little Golden Books. Several of his books were written by Kathryn Jackson and Patsy Scarry. Gradually his animal characters started to behave more like real people, and the drawing became much looser in style. In 1959 he moved with his family from Ridgefield, Connecticut, to Westport.

Scarry made his breakthrough in 1963 with Richard Scarry's Best World Book Ever. The large-format book, with more than 1 400 objects identified with labels, sold seven million copies in twelve years. In 1965 Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World appeared, a detailed work of drawings and thirty-three stories set in different parts of the world. However, the book did not achieve as much success as Richard Scarry's Storybook Dictionary, which was published the next year. He also illustrated several books written by J.D. Bevington. Other writers included Jane Werner, Mary Reed, Edith Osswald, Peggy Parish, Jean Selligman, Levine Milton, Edward Lear, Ole Risom, Barbara Shook Hazen.

Richard Scarry died in his home in Gstaad on April 30, 1994. His son Richard has carried on the creative tradition. Scarry considered himself a fun-man disguised as an educator. "Everything has an educational value if you look for it. But it's the fun I want to get across." In the first book he illustrated for Artists and Writers, he painted in full color. By the time he created his first big book, Richard Scarry's Best World Book Ever, he had devised another method. He drew the lines with a pencil, and painted the blueboards in the colors, using a water-based paint. Scarry's favorite was Winsor & Newton Designers Colors. First he painted all the objects that were to be red, then the blue, and so on. It saved time and materials in preparation for printing.

Other Richard and Patricia Scarry Little Golden Books

A Dragon in A Wagon, and other strange sights
Danny Beaver's Secret
Good Night, Little Bear
Duck and his Friends
My Teddy Bear
Rags
Richard Scarry's Best Balloon Ride Ever
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

Duck and his Friends - Little Golden Book