Little Red Riding Hood – Retold
Categories: Children, Featured, FeaturedPage
Written By: John
A fun little retelling of this childhood classic. This was one of a series put out by M. A. Donohue & Company in the early 20th century, none of which indicated authorship or gave credit to an artist. Others in the series included Peter Rabbit, Chicken Little, The Three Bears, and other popular stories of that type. I have also scanned and reproduced here the endpapers, which include all the character from the different stories in a forest together.
Granny doesn’t get eaten. The woodman is homeless. Little Red Riding Hood climbs on top of the canopy bed and fall asleep there. A few things were changed for this telling. I have included at the end of the gallery full scans of the book so the text is viewable as well.
Title: Little Red Riding Hood – Retold
Author: unattributed
Artist: unattributed
Publisher: M. A. Donohue & Company
Date Published: 1921
Following are some samples form the book. There are 27 in all, not including the unedited scans of the full text. I have edited them a bit to brighten the tones and eliminate some aging and other small flaws. All the images, large format JPEG and available for free download, are in the gallery.
Her grandmother, who was very fond of her, made her a little red cloak and hood
Where does your Grandmother live?
when the grandmother saw his wicked face, she jumped out of bed and ran.
The better to eat you with!' cried the wolf, and leaped out of bed; but he became entangled in the bedclothes...
When the wolf found he could not reach her, he got back into bed again. It was very quiet in the little house for some time.
"And the next day Grandmother had the nicest tea party"
Sample Page of Full Text - Unedited
April 6th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hello! I just love the face on RRH. Thx for doing this. I was directed to this sight thru an ad for a skateboard!! The ad said that the pictures decorating the board came from the book “The Flower Children” by Elizabeth Gordon and the designer got the pictures from this WEB sight. I have looked everywhere on your sight and CANNOT find them. Could you help me, please?
April 6th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the comment. Actually, that is probably one of my stores on Zazzle where you saw the skateboard.
The images are in a folder waiting to be posted but not accessible yet. They are one of many little projects that keep getting shoved to the back burner.
I will try to get them organized and posted soon. In fact, I’ll go make a folder for them now. There are a lot of images though, so email me and let me know if there are particular ones you want me to prioritize.
HERE is the folder in the Gallery.
- John
April 7th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Thank you, John. They are so sweet. Have you come across any other books the Ross illustrated that are in the public domain? How about the book entitled “Loraine?”
How does Murdock Publ get to issue a copyright on pictures that are in the public domain? How about Ross’ children issueing licenses for use of his paintings? What is the significance of the year 1923?
Thx for your info. Nancy
April 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Under the “Book Resource Links” section on the front page of this site there are links to basic copyright information. 1923 is the US cutoff year for things automatically being in the public domain. If it was published in the US before 01/01/1923 it should be public domain. You need to do some online searches and read up on all the details to really understand a lot of it.
Copyright is extremely tricky. I am not familiar with the Murdock case you mention. If they are trying to claim copyright to a public domain image there is a good chance they can be ignored. No knowing the specifics I don’t really know. The same with Ross images. Some images were likle created and published after 1923 and so still have protection.
For instance, I could claim that the images I scan and clean up for this site are my property because I worked hard on them. This would not stand up under legal scrutiny, though, as my scans fall under the “slavish” reproduction category, or something similar. In other words, I am trying to create faithful reproductions and am creating nothing new or original.
You will still find sites claiming copyright on public domain content, though. You have to wade through all the specifics to find out the truth in each case.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Thanks, John. I belong to a historical society where we have been bequeathed an archive of a recently defunct company in our town with a long and important history. Hence, my curiousity.
May 18th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Dear John,
Do you have any more of Elizabeth Gordon’s books that you could scan? I love “Mother Earth….”, and “Bird Children….”. When you scan, you’re color enhancements of the images make all the difference in the world. Ross illustrated for other authors as well. Do you have any of his other works?
Thanks for all you do.
Nancy
May 18th, 2009 at 8:27 am
PS> Do you have any of these books for sale?
November 29th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Hi there. Just found your site doing a search for The Peter Rabbit Series. I found the “Peter Rabbit” book from the collection at my local thrift store yesterday. Didn’t have much info (author, illustrator or date published) so I was doing a little research. The illustrations and endpapers were so lovely I couldn’t help but to purchase it for $.50.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Thanks. I have not seen that book. If you want to share I would love to post the illustrations here. If you don’t have a scanner or the time I’d be happy to borrow the book to get some nice images and send it back to you.
It’s a good buy for 50 cents. You can’t go wrong with any nice old picture book for that price.
- John
March 7th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
I have 6 of the Peter Rabbit Series that I am trying to value. The 1919 and 1940′s info is identical except for the color of the jackets. The publisher is is M. A. Donohue. I’m 62 and so I’m thinking they would have been 1940′s.
Three Pigs, Little Black Sambo – green
Chicken Little, Selfish Fox – orange
Red Hen – red
Three Bears – reddish orange
Can anyone tell me the publication date, value, illustrator of these wonderful books?