The Little Grey Rabbit Library
Wow, it’s been ninety years since the first publication of The Hare, the Squirrel, and the Little Grey Rabbit. Back in the 80’s and 90’s Collins celebrated the over fifty milestone by launching the Little Grey Rabbit Library. On the back of the book they described it as a “…smart new look. Fresh, pretty covers and a picture on every opening make them more attractive than ever before. Start collecting your Little Grey Rabbit Library now.”
Quietly, inside the book on the copyright page they confess, “Alison Uttley’s original story has been abridged for this book.” Take heart, at least the foreword is included.
They’re not my favorites because they’ve been abridged and upon first impression the covers reminded me of 1980’s calico wallpaper. The kind of wallpaper they sold in Sears or J.C. Penney’s with coordinating ruffled Pricilla curtains and a tin trash bin. However, I do appreciate the detail that went in to each cover and they deserve a closer look. Collins hired a fine artist, Fiona Owen, to design the covers. Looking at her artworks (illuminations, Celtic and medievalist) I can appreciate the LGR library covers more. I thought it was a vine pattern, but I can see something inspired by medieval and Celtic motifs. It’s a scroll joined by crosses at each dip. Each book has a tiny repeat illustration within the scroll of an object that coordinates with the story. The color of the scroll also varies from book to book. For example, Little Grey Rabbit Goes to the Sea has a sandcastle, and Washing Day has a nutmeg. 
When you have a stack of them in your hands the effect of the various covers is quite appealing. Pretty and gentle colors. Little wonder children would want to collect the whole library. They also used this cover design style for Further Tales of Little Grey Rabbit, and the endpapers of Little Grey Rabbit’s Country Book.
Smart New Look…
Mary Cooper, the successor of Margaret Tempest and Katherine Wigglesworth, was hired to add decorated capitals to the books. One capital appears at the beginning of each story—with the exception of Little Grey Rabbit to the Rescue because it is a script less than story. The decorated capitals make a lovely touch, and yet for some reason they chose to leave the endpapers absolutely plain. They didn’t even try something new to replace the lovely single color illustration by Margaret Tempest.
A Picture on every opening…
Collins abridged the text and got rid of the practice of placing two blocks of texts on facing pages. Sometimes they had enough illustrations for every page, but sometimes they just edited out the background of existing illustrations. It works for small objects, but when used with characters it just reminds me of stickers decorating the page. Scroll down to see an example in the Gallery Books edition of The Speckledy Hen.
The Publishers…
Collins, Gallery Books and Diamond Children’s all issued reprints using the LGR library design style.
Diamond Children’s was a London based publisher and their reprints are identical to the Collins LGR library editions. However, Gallery Books was an American publisher and they did something different: reprinted the books as big as Texas! Or, rather a slightly larger 10.5 x 8.5 inch format. Under the logo they added an illustration from Little Grey Rabbit’s Paint-Box.
They also added more borders and flower garlands around all the pages. I think the gallery book editions could pass muster for a story time with a modest audience.
Final thoughts…
They’re easy to come by cheaply since they’re not first editions. The few copies I have are all second hand, so I don’t know if they originally came with jackets. Some even had a former life as library books without mylar covering! So at least they’re durable. It’s doubtful that I’ll ever want to complete the library since they’re abridged. Though..it would be cool if they came in a complete box set like the Beatrix Potter books—though I would much prefer that treatment for unabridged versions with decorated endpapers.
Until next time,
Primrose
Little Grey Rabbit Scholar 