Down Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle | September 1934 Junior Literary Guild Selection || Antique Picture Book | Bixley Shop

Down Down the Mountain was written and illustrated by Ellis Credle. A children's picture book written during the Great Depression, it chronicles the story of two children anxious to earn money for new shoes. They work diligently all summer to grow turnips to sell, only wind up winning the County Fair prize for the best turnips and enough to purchase their new shoes!

Down Down the Mountain was the monthly selection of the Junior Literary Guild in September, 1934. Eleanor Roosevelt served on the board of the Junior Literary Guild at the time and was a huge advocate for children's literature. This book includes the monthly Young Wings Magazine: The Magazine of the Boys' and Girls' Own Book Club, September 1934. The Magazine is adhered to the inside front page. (See our photographs.)

ABOUT THE JUNIOR LITERARY GUILD (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Junior Library Guild, formerly the Junior Literary Guild, is a commercial book club devoted to juvenile literature. It was created in 1929 as one of the enterprises of the Literary Guild, an adult book club created in 1927 by Samuel W. Craig and Harold K. Guinzburg. Selection of a children's book by the editors of the Junior Literary Guild (or latterly the Junior Library Guild) is a distinction used for publicity by publishers and authors of children's books. At present, 492 books are selected each year. The position of editor-in-chief of the Junior Literary Guild has been held by only a few individuals over the years. Carl Van Doren was the first editor. He was followed by Helen Ferris, who served from August 1929 until 1960. Ferris was a close associate of Eleanor Roosevelt, who served on the editorial board of the Junior Literary Guild from 1929 through her death in 1962. Roosevelt's involvement in the Guild was fairly active; for example, in a My Day column from 1938 she wrote, "One of the stories I thought interesting about these books was the fact related by the postmaster in a mining town — that two miners' families had often gone without food, but had never cancelled their subscriptions to the Junior Literary Guild books".

BIXLEY NOTES
• Down Down the Mountain
• Written & Illustrated by Ellis Credle
• September 1934 Junior Literary Guild Monthly Selection
• Young Wings Magazine included inside the book
• 48 page hardcover with dust jacket
• Beautiful pencil drawings on every page
• Published by the Junior Literary Guild & Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1934
• Each measures 11 3/4" x 9"

VINTAGE NOTES
• In good condition overall
• Binding is nice and tight
• Covers have bowed a bit
• Dust jacket is tattered along the edges
• Library stamp on the inside front cover
• Pages are in great shape overall

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