formerly Shakespeare and Company Books, now VIcarious Experience

Seatmates by Mary K (Kate) Reely. Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.

Seatmates by Mary K (Kate) Reely. Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. Franklin Watts, Inc. "Published 1949" with no subsequent listings of printing. Hardcover with pieces of dust jacket. DUST JACKET: What appears to be the front panel of the DJ is glued onto a white cardboard and clipped in the corners. Around the edges of what is left of the front panel has glue marks as if it had been framed. A clipping of the entire text of the front dj flap is taped onto the verso side of the front end paper and the entire text of the back dj flap is taped onto a blank page in the back of the book. BOOK: Glued onto the half-title page is a postage card photograph of a woman wearing glasses. Photo appears to have been taken in the 1940's or 1950's. On the dedication page is an inscription, "For Barbara - and Karen/ from Aunt Kate". I can only gues sabout both of these, and I would guess the photo is of the author and the inscription from the author, whose nickname, the back flap informs us, is 'Kate'. If so, then the book appears to have been gifted to two nieces. Book is cocked with some cover wear. Some bumping to the cover tips. Otherwise, no previous owner markings. No tears, folds or creases to pages. In spite of the cocking, binding is tight with no looseness to pages. Not ex-library, not remaindered and not a facsimile reprint. For sale by Jon Wobber, bookseller since 1978. DD10a

"MARY KATHERINE REELY, who is the "Kate" of this charming story based on her early experiences, was born on a farm near Green, Wisconsin." from the back dj flap. "SEATMATES is a pleasant easy-to-read story about a long-ago little girl in a small midwestern town, but modern ilttle girls will read about Kate and Lily and Tottie with a cosy ,today sense of identification. ...Kate's story took place fifty years ago, but in her small Wisconsin town she enjoyed many of the things many of the things that girls today find fun...She plays a trick one day, she manages to hide a hurt about a birthday party, and she finally gets one of her dearest wishes--but that's the best part of the story, so we can't tell you." from the front dj flap.

"Eloise Margaret Wilkin, born Eloise Margaret Burns (March 30, 1904 – October 4, 1987), was an American illustrator. She was best known as an illustrator of Little Golden Books. Many of the picture books she illustrated have become classics of American children's literature. Jane Werner Watson, who edited and wrote hundreds of Golden Books, called Eloise Wilkin "the soul of Little Golden Books", and Wilkin's books remain highly collectible. Her watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are known for their glowing depiction of babies, toddlers, and their parents in idyllic rural and domestic settings."-Wikipedia