Some books you collect. Some books collect you. For me, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has always been the second kind. This is a first American edition, first printing, published by The Macmillan Company in New York in 1950, and it is offered here by silent bid.
Where Narnia Began
C.S. Lewis said Narnia began with a picture in his head: a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels through a snowy wood. He had carried that picture around since he was sixteen. In 1950 it finally became a book. Geoffrey Bles published it in London in October, and Macmillan brought it to America later that same fall. At the time, nobody knew whether a children’s story by an Oxford don who wrote about theology would find readers. Seven Chronicles and more than a hundred million copies later, we have our answer. This copy comes from that first American printing, before anyone knew what Narnia would become.
The Book
- The title page reads “The Macmillan Company, New York: 1950” and “Illustrated by Pauline Baynes,” with Baynes’s drawing of a small creature peeking out between tree trunks.
- The copyright page reads “Copyright, 1950, by The Macmillan Company” and clearly states “FIRST PRINTING.”
- It has the dedication to Lucy Barfield, Lewis’s goddaughter, which tells her she is already too old for fairy tales but will one day be old enough to start reading them again.
- It’s bound in the original grey-blue cloth with a stamped vignette of a leaping stag on the front cover. The spine reads “C. S. LEWIS,” then the title on a pale panel, then “MACMILLAN.”
- Pauline Baynes’s illustrations appear throughout. Lewis found her through Tolkien, who had loved her drawings for Farmer Giles of Ham. Her pictures became the face of Narnia for generations of readers.
The Dust Jacket
The book comes with a high-quality facsimile dust jacket that reproduces the original 1950 Macmillan design. To be clear, the jacket is a reproduction, not an original. It’s in a protective mylar cover and shows:
- On the front, Baynes’s cover art of Lucy and Susan riding Aslan, framed by trees, fauns and birds
- On the back, Mr. Tumnus walking away through the snow with his umbrella and parcels, the very picture Lewis said started it all
- On the flap, the cozy supper in the Beavers’ house
It lets the book sit on a shelf the way it did in 1950, while the original cloth underneath stays protected.
Condition
This copy was read and loved, and it shows. The cloth is rubbed, with fraying at the head and foot of the spine and softened, worn corners. The lower part of the front board has some light spotting. A previous owner, “Tim S.,” wrote his name in blue marker at the top of the front endpaper, so some child in the 1950s clearly counted this book as his own. The binding holds together, the title, copyright and dedication pages are clean and complete, and the paper has toned evenly with age. This isn’t a fine copy. It’s a true first printing that was read the way Lewis hoped his book would be.
Why This Matters
First printings of the first American edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are scarce, because most copies went home with children and were read to pieces. A copy in a fine original jacket is out of reach for most collectors. This one offers the real 1950 first printing, with its “FIRST PRINTING” statement and the Lucy Barfield dedication, along with a faithful jacket that brings back its original look.
A Personal Note
I’ll keep this one simple. I love this book. I’ve taught Lewis in university classrooms and walked his paths in England and Ireland, and I still come back to this story more than any of the others. Every time I open it, I’m a child again, stepping past the fur coats and feeling for the back of the wardrobe. Letting a first printing go is hard. But a book like this was made to be held and loved, and I hope it can bring that same joy to someone else.
What’s Included
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Macmillan, New York, 1950), first American edition, first printing
- A facsimile of the original 1950 Macmillan dust jacket, in a mylar protector
- Sold together as one lot
How to bid
The book and the facsimile dust jacket will be sold together as a single lot by silent bid.
- Email your bid to daniel@theolatte.com with the subject line “Bid: First Edition Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
- Include your name, your bid in U.S. dollars, and the best way to reach you.
- If your bid is close to what I’m looking for, I’ll follow up with you personally.
- You can view my ebay seller ratings and my etsy shop ratings/reviews to check on my standard of business. I’ve got good reviews and I want to make sure you are pleased.
- If your bid is accepted, you’ll send your payment through Venmo.
- If requested, and you send an acceptable bid, I can do a video call for you to better inspect your item before sending payment.
- After I receive your payment, I will send the item first class with sufficient insurance to cover the value and send you the tracking number.
Please bid responsibly. I won’t be haggling much over price, so send your best offer the first time. The bid you send is the one I’ll consider. If it is close, I’ll either send a notice of acceptance with directions for next steps, or a counter offer. If you don’t hear back within a few days, feel free to send a higher bid.
