Collecting Enid Blyton

Born in 1897 Enid Blyton is one of the best-selling children’s authors of all time. She began writing at an early age, but her first real success came in 1922 when J. Saville published child whispers, a slim volume of poems.

Her second book, Real Fairies published in 1923, appeared simultaneously in card covers and hardback. These early works are some of the most sought-after, but the "Famous Five" and "Adventure" series remain the most desirable.

During her lifetime, Enid Blyton wrote approximately 800 books and more than 4,500 short stories. Today her books are widely read and avidly collected, but that wasn’t always the case. Twenty years ago, a first edition five on a Treasure Island in the original dust jacket could be bought for just a few pounds but now costs somewhere in the region of two to three thousand pounds.

The 24 volumes of the "Noddy Library" are fairly easy to find in reprint editions, but first editions in dust-jackets are much harder to find. Later editions were issued in glazed boards without dust-jackets. Much of Noddy’s success was down to the wonderful illustrations of Harmsen Van der Beek, and the various illustrators who continued the work after his death.

Enid Blyton's first full-length work of fiction was the adventures of the wishing chair (1937), and in 1939 the first of the Magic Faraway Tree stories, The enchanted wood, was published. These are also avidly collected and therefore hard to find. 

There are many other books of interest for the collector,  the secret seven, the five find-outers, the adventurous four, the Barney mysteries, St. Clare’s and Malory Towers to name just a few.

To find out more about Enid Blyton visit; The Enid Blyton Society

I'm a big fan of The Famous Five books and the Adventure series - do you have a favourite? Or maybe you don't like Enid Blyton at all - please feel free to leave a comment.