Thursday, June 23, 2011

A friend is someone who writes in your book

I recently came across this heavily inscribed copy of Joan Walsh Anglund's still popular "A Friend Is Someone Who Likes You." There must be a few million copies of this book -- which was first published in 1958 -- in print. It's still popular to give as a gift, and that's what this copy was.

According to the Loganberry Books website: "Joan Walsh Anglund became successful with her first book, A Friend Is Someone Who Likes You, in 1958. She's been making books featuring these same round-faced mouthless characters ever since, and her popularity continues to grow. ... [She] is a perennial favorite here and a popular choice for gift books. She seems to strike a nerve and her images of childhood have an innocence and purity that people respond to with a rush of nostalgia. Older copies of her books are usually preferred by those who want their nostalgia to be real, right down to the feel the book..."

Anglund, who was born in 1926, has written and illustrated more than 75 children's books and sold more than 40 million books worldwide in her lifetime.

This copy was inscribed on five different pages. Here's the rundown:


The note from the inside front cover:
Jule
For April people -- like us -- she must have written this, my favorite Poem, and I think I want to share it with you, Schnoök!1
--Me

The poem that "Me" has written out for "Jule" is inscribed on the following page. It's "Spring" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. This probably represents the only time in history that the word "maggots" was inscribed in a copy of "A Friend Is Someone Who Likes You":


After that, at the start of of the book, the unnamed inscriber annotates the first three pages of Anglund's text. Very cute:




Check out the "Inscriptions" subcategory on Papergreat for other interesting notes and doodles found inside books.

Footnote
1. I assume that "Schnoök," as used here, is an abbreviation of snookums, a term of endearment. Because a "schnook" is a sucker or gullible person.

1 comment:

  1. Chris, this is AWESOME. I have a copy of "A Friend is Someone who Likes You", which my Grammie gave to my mom shortly after I was born in 1968. Mine has an inscription too, but of course I can't find my copy right now. :D These inscriptions are wonderful! So playful and flirty and romantic. :D

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