A Child's Book Of Modern Stories

This book was originally published in 1920. What makes my copy fairly unique is that there is only one other that has its dust jacket (and that copy is selling for more than twice what mine will be). Also, the book I have here for sale is in terrific condition, not at all what you would expect from a children's book published in 1935. As you can see from the photos, the covers are exceptionally clean and in very nice condition. The pictorial color paste-down looks perfect. The gilt lettering on the front is very bright, on the spine it is only a little less so. I am noticing that the bottom inch or two of the spine is a slightly darker green hue than the rest of the spine. I'm not sure what caused that. There is a little bit of crinkling at both spine ends. All four corners and six edges are in very good shape. The top page edge is a light red (in celebration of Mother's Day). All three page edges look very good, the bottom one does have a scratch. The book is square and very solidly bound from cover to cover, with nicely tight pages throughout. Both covers are perfectly bound. I turned over every page in the book and these pages are in really nice condition. They are exceptionally clean. I don't think there are more than a few inconspicuous spots. Same goes for creasing, very little. I don't think I saw any turned down corners, no dogeared corners. There are no markings anywhere in the book. No attachments of any kind. The scratch at the bottom edge did create a tiny nick at the bottom edge of each page. You can see it but it is truly very, very minor. It didn't cause a tear on any page. It didn't create a crease on any page. It's just literally a tiny nick. What stands out quite positively is the condition of the eight color full-page illustrations (one is the frontispiece) by Jessie Wilcox Smith. All of them are beautiful and in exceptional condition. I'm guessing that they look the same way they looked when the book was first published. Finishing up, on the blank first front end paper, the original owner penned his name and the date ('Peter Malott Carnahan, Christmas, 1936 '). Actually he didn't. I just googled the name and he was born in 1931, and this very crisp signature came clearly from the hand of an adult. These stories may have inspired Peter (I can't help myself) because he went on to become a writer. He authored a book titled 'Schooner Master: A Portrait of David Stevens', another titled 'A Gathering of Actors: The People's Light and Theatre Company in Cyprus and Hungary' and, according to the biographical information I'm reading, four novels and an autobiography titled 'Opposable Lives', in which he may or may not have mentioned that he owned this book. Sadly, it states that he passed away in March 2019. I purchased this book around a decade ago. Back to condition, the adult signature of five-year-old Peter is the only writing to be found anywhere in the book. You can see the rare dust jacket in the first few photos. It's not so bad for having survived Peter and nearly 85 years. You can see the tear/crease on the front cover. There's also loss at both spine ends ( not reaching the lettering). There is some scuffing on both sides of the spine. There are a few edge tears. The jacket is pretty clean. All four flaps have tucking-in clips at their corners. One of the clips may have taken out the price. Anyway, there is none present. The rear flap has a little color loss at its inside edge. I've had the jacket in a fitted protective cover for as long as I've owned the book. The verbiage on the front flap states 'A collection of the best modern stories for children by famous authors of many lands. With the very charming illustrations of Jessie Wilcox Smith.'.…