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Five Children and It

E[dith] Nesbit

This is one of 11 dust-jackets designed by Blampied for new editions published in 1923 of novels and stories by E. Nesbit, a prolific and famous children's writer. The panels of nine jackets are pasted into Blamped's personal album of wrappers, two of which are known only from this album. Four more titles by E. Nesbit were later reprinted by Fisher Unwin, but not with a jacket designed by Blampied. At least two of these later titles, The Magic City and The Wonderful Garden, have a jacket signed Nick, which is the diminuitive used by John Nicolson, a close friend of Edmund Blampied.

The 11 books with jackets designed by Blampied were reissued by T. Fisher Unwin until they merged with Ernest Benn Limited in 1928, who continued to use the same jacket design into the 1940s. While it would be nice to show the first use of the jacket design, the jackets of books for children do not always survive, so I have shown the jacket of the best edition, which may be the Benn edition, if that's all I have. It may not be exactly the same as the first impression, so I have shown the panel of the jacket from Blampied's personal album, which is assumed to be the first impression to use his design. According to notices in the Press the publishers issued a free illustrated booklet in 1923 to advertise the 11 titles in the uniform series.

E. Nesbit (1858-1924) was a writer and socialist. In 1880 she married Herbert Bland and with him was one of the founder members of The Fabian Society. Bland died in 1914 and she married in 1917 Thomas Terry Tucker.

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Dust jacket of the 7th impression of 1924 (click to enlarge)

Panel of jacket from Blampied's personal album (click to enlarge)

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