Grosset and Dunlap 1932
First photoplay edition of KING KONG, with its scarce very good plus original dust jacket. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1932. Conceived by Edgar Wallace and Merian Cooper. This was the novelization of the screenplay and is considered to be the rarest of the photoplay editions. The book was published slightly before the film was released. The book without the original jacket can be found in prices ranging from $600 to $1000 (depending on condition), yet examples of this book in an original dust jacket sells for $7500 and up. It is the rarity and collectability of the jacket which distinguishes the pricing, with the jacket having nearly 12x the value of the actual book. This is the result of the jacket being both fragile, in addition to that dust jackets at the time were intended to be discarded as they were considered as mere advertisements, so as a result relatively few are left available. The original lavishly painted King Kong jacket art is collectible in its own right, with the background mixing the New York setting with the dinosaurs of Skull Island. This book comes with the scarce very good plus original dust jacket.
The book is in beautiful condition with crisp lime green cloth boards, with strong unfaded deep chocolate brown titles to front and spine. The boards have some of the common very slight toning. The book has sharp corners with one corner tip bump, and with no edgewear. The end papers depict scenes from the photoplay and are clean with no owner names, and no bookplates. The internal pages are overall clean, with an occasional smudge or light handling mark. The deep chocolate top stain applied by the publisher to the top of the page block is strong.
The value of this book is in the original dust jacket. The jacket has some strong vibrant, vivid colors with but the typical fading to the spine only. This in itself is most unusual as this jacket was very prone to fading, and of the few remaining original jackets having survived, many are found with faded front and rear panels as well as faded spines. The dust jacket presents in very good condition having benefited from some restoration to the spine ends by an expert paper conservator, and has some slight softened creases. The reverse side of the jacket has the requisite text ads listing the Grosset and Dunlap publications. A handsome jacket presenting the book beautifully on the shelf. The dust jacket is protected in a new clear removeable archival cover.
Extremely Scarce title in collectible condition.
