Bibliographic Description

Bibliographic Description

Cover:  

Title Page Transcription:  MINN
                                        OF THE
                                        MISSISSIPPI

                                       WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY
                                       HOLLING CLANCY HOLLING
                                       [Illustration]
                                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY . BOSTON
                                       THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE
                                       1951


Title Page :

Title Page Verso Transcription: DEDICATION

     [ "This book is affectionately dedicated to my niece, Linda Lu Mahoney. The story began one morning in Linda's home. Long before she was up the words began trailing from a pencil, in the room where she plays. Later on she watched - as her mother, Gwendalin, once watched my peculiar scribblings.
Gwen was not an enthusiastic herpetologist. However, she liked to watch from the roots of big walnut stumps while I waded waist-deep in the pond, capturing turtles. To help me out, she even held a few while my hands were full.
Linda likes turtles, that is she liked turtles brought by boys as this story got under way. Her grandmother Lulah, from whom came half her name, found us Great-Grandmother Laura's big butter crock for a turtle pen. Linda thought it nice that I could look down at bright-eyed turtles as I typed. It was agreed that even the turtles seemed interested. Edward, Linda's father thought that he could bring her a crockful of turtles from the Au Sable River. More or less.
Perhaps Linda never got a crockful of turtles. Perhaps she prefers to see them swimming in a pond like the pond her mother knew. That is as it should be. But the little turtles in the big crock, and the interest in Linda's eyes - all helped in the making of this book.]

                                                   COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY HOLLING CLANCY HOLLING
                                        ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
                                                   THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM
                                                    PRINTED IN THE USA

Spine Transcription: Holling     MINN of the MISSISSIPPI  H.M. CO.

Binding:   

The book is bound with yellow cloth reinforced with thick cardboard inserts.  Edges of the fabric are beginning to fray and the spine’s fabric has begun to tear away from the cardboard.  However, this copy is over 60 years old and has aged well for a large children’s book.  All pages are intact and stitched securely into the binding.  More recent printings of the book are currently available from a variety of vendors and are held by many libraries.




Jacket Copy: This was originally published with a jacket. With some ILL handiwork I was able to locate a jacketed copy of the book. The book's jacket was printed in full color on thick non-glossy paper. Unfortunately, the material has become rather brittle through the years and has begun to crack at the edges. This would explain why locating an original with a jacket was initially so difficult.

Introductory Material: There is a dedication to the author’s niece, Linda Lu Mahoney.  Also, there is an acknowledgement from the author thanking individuals who helped with the book’s research and production.

Table of Contents :

Size: 22 cm width, 28 cm height, 1.5 cm thick.

Pages: 85 pages.

Font: Linotype.

Physical presentation of the text: The story’s text is attractively presented aligned to the right side of the page leaving large margins on the top, bottom, and left of the page for black and white illustrations and instructional diagrams.  This provides the sense of a body of text with playful marginal notations that add further points of interests to the turtle’s journey.  

Paper: The pages are very sturdy and thick.  They show no signs of crumbling, however, they do appear have suffered from acidic discoloration and many of the white pages have faded to an off white or yellow hue.  Pages with color illustrations, however, have held up quite well.

Number and extant of illustrations: 20 full page color illustrations and a copious amount of black and white illustrations in the rest of the pages’ margins.  Full page illustrations appear every fourth page.

Sample Color Page:

Sample Black and White Page :

Resources:

Holling, Holling Clancy.  Minn of the Mississippi.  Cambridge, Ma: Riverside Press, Houghton Mifflin, 1951.

Worldcat: http://www.worldcat.org/title/minn-of-the-mississippi/oclc/480499/editions?referer=di&editionsView=true.  Accessed 10-10-2012.