Ladybird Series 740 Children’s Classis This is an ideal introduction to collecting Ladybird books. Series 740 is a fairly modern series with the first title published in 1979 with approximately 2-3 titles published each year throughout the 80’s until 28 titles were published in total for the core body of the series. They were: Swiss Family Robinson Treasure Island The Secret Garden A Journey to the Centre of the Earth The Three Musketeers Tale of Two Cities Gulliver’s Travels The Lost World King Soloman’s Mines Around the World in Eighty Days A Christmas Carol Wind in the Willows The Last of the Mohicans The Happy Prince and other stories Peter Pan Lorna Doone Oliver Twist The Railway Children Kidnapped A Little Princess Black Beauty Alice in Wonderland Tom Sawyer Little Women Tales of the Jungle Book The Invisible Man What Katy Did Heidi However as with all Ladybird series things are not always that simple! Series 740 was first launched in 1974 (hence the 740 in the series title) By 1980 it was divided into four sections, with the following titles listed under each heading: Children’s Classics Swiss Family Robinson Treasure Island The Secret Garden A Journey to the Centre of the Earth The Three Musketeers Myth’s, Fables and Legends A First Book of Aesop’s Fables A Second Book of Aesop’s Fables Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Famous Legends Book 1 Famous Legends Book 2 Tales of King Arthur Mysteries of Merlin Deeds of the Nameless Knight Sir Lancelot of the Lake The Knight of the Golden Falcon Robin Hood Adventures Robin Hood Outlawed Robin Hood and the King’s Ransom Robin Hood to the Rescue Robin Hood and the Silver Arrow All of the above titles were originally in series 740. They had a matt finish to the cover and often had First Edition on the inside title page. On the back endpapers in a gold framed scroll under the title ‘Stories that have stood the test of time’ the published titles were listed. By 1984 when the Children’s Classic series was published up till ‘A Little Princess’ , Myth’s, Fables and Legends had become just Fables with two further titles added: La Fontaine’s Fables: The Fox Turned Wolf Folk Tales from Around the World Tales of King Arthur and Robin Hood Adventures had joined to become series 741 and renamed Legends. The Children’s Classic series had an additional title ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ , but this eventually moved to series 841. In 1984 Horror Classics series 841 was added to the list. They were; Horror Classics 841 Dracula Frankenstein All the books from 1980 were published with a gloss finish and the back page still contained a full up to date list of published books in the series. By the end of the 80’s when the full 28 titles were published in Children’s Classics, the other titles originally in 740 had been moved to other series . The titles were; Legends 741 Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Famous Legends Book 1 Famous Legends Book 2 Robin Hood King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Malaysian Tales Fables 742 A First Book of Aesop’s Fables A Second Book of Aesop’s Fables Horror Classics 841 Dracula Frankenstein The Mummy The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Hound of the Baskervilles Mystery & Adventure 872 Ghostly Tales Later published books had a one page list of the titles listed just on a plain yellow scroll. This is where the collecting becomes fun and addictive! If you can find all of the 28 titles in the Children’s Classic series that is great, and a wonderful little library of favourite tales but finding first editions of each of them is a challenge. Then add to this the extra 14 titles from the original 740 series published before 1984 and first editions at that, the extra two titles to Fables that was added in 1984 and an original of Hounds of the Baskervilles with 740 series on it and you can begin to see why Ladybird books are so sought after. To make you collection complete it is best to add the extra three titles in series 741 published in the 1990’s and the one title from 872 and the whole of the 841 Horror Classic series. I think this is 53 titles in total. Happy hunting!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:48:02 +0000
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