Betty Bacon Blunt’s wordless novel, Bet It’s A Boy, in 46 line drawings is a lighthearted pictorial account of a woman’s journey to childbirth. Despite the prediction, they discover twin girls.
story face the possibility of becoming parents.
It tells the age old story of a young couple, first suspecting, then confirming the wife is pregnant. First published in 1940, the cartoons accurately depict what all pregnant women have had to cope with down through the ages including experiences with more “modern” medicine.
Most wordless novels, especially those pre-1960, deal with social realism and rather grim themes. This story lacks the gravitas often associated with wordless novels on this site and some would question the appropriateness of including it here. My inclination is to include anything that comes within the strict definition of a wordless story, lighthearted or not.
- Title: Bet It’s A Boy
- Author and Illustrator: Betty Bacon Blunt
- Copyright Year: 1940
Comparing 4 editions of Blunt’s, Bet It’s A Boy
Four editions were issued during 1940 and 1941. For a discussion of the different production processes used for the four CLICK HERE.
QUESTION: There are 3 editions, with no date of publication except to say “Copyright 1940” so, without more, there is no information as to the order of publication of these three.
In addition a hard cover came out in 1941. No other editions came out until 1948.
Any information would be appreciated.
Copyright:
- All 4 editions are “Copyright 1940 by Betty Bacon Blunt”
Stated Publisher:
- Plastic comb binding – Cider Press; Place of publication: Brattleboro, VT
- Plastic spiral binding – The General Publishing Company; Place of publication: Springfield, Mass.
- Perfect bound binding – Grosset and Dunlap; Place of publication: New York
- 1941 hardcover – Publisher is not indicated but the title page used the same apple logo (without any name) as the blue plastic comb edition.
Dimensions:
- 1940 – all 3 publications are essentially the same size: 8 1/4 x 7 inches (comb and spiral editions are slightly wider to accommodate the binding)
- 1941 hardcover – 8 5/8 x 7 1/8″ (22 x 18 cm) ie. slightly larger than the 1940 publications.
Printing
- all 4 copies are unpaginated
- The plastic spiral and plastic comb are printed recto
- the Perfect Bound is printed recto and verso. Was the Perfect Bound an effort to save on petroleum or paper given the European war?
- 1941 Hard cover – printed recto.
3 Colours:
- All 4 editions are done in black line drawings with some lines augmented with blue; all images have blue added and many images have gold added (always the mother’s hair).
- There are some differences in the shades of colour but nothing that can’t be explained by differences in job lots.
Cider Press – 1940 plastic comb binding of Bet It’s A Boy
- Printer: The General Printing Company Inc
- Binding: plastic comb binding, light blue (for a boy?). The blue is bleached out on the back of the spine but not on the interior.
- Cover: thin card
- Printed: recto except copyright page
comb binding: cover front and back.
– comb binding:Title page.
binding: Copyright page and first image.
Copyright Page detail. Binding U.S. patent # 1,970,285
binding: Sample page; all images printed recto.
The General Publishing Company – plastic wire spiral binding of Bet It’s A Boy
Printer: Lithographed by The General Printing Company Inc (as distinct from the publisher)
Binding: plastic wire spiral
Cover: thin card
Printed: recto
– plastic wire spiral binding showing front
and back covers.
– plastic wire spiral binding showing title
page; General Publishing Co.
– plastic wire spiral binding showing
copyright page and 1st image.
– plastic wire spiral binding showing copyright
page and lithographed by General Printing Co.
– plastic wire spiral binding; all images printed recto.
Grosset & Dunlap, NY. 1940 Perfect bound edition of Blunt’s, Bet It’s A Boy
- Printer: not indicated,
- Binding: perfect bound, softcover wraps,
- Cover: thin card,
- Printed: recto and verso (unlike the other two editions). Was this Perfect Bound a later war effort to save on petroleum/paper?
- Note: Grosset and Dunlap went back to spiral binding for this book in 1953.
perfect bound showing front and back covers.
perfect bound showing the spine.
perfect bound showing the title page with no FFEP.
a Boy perfect bound showing the title
and copyright page combined.
a Boy perfect bound with images printed
verso and recto (to save on paper?).
1941 Hard cover edition of Blunt’s, Bet It’s A Boy
- Publisher: not indicated
- Printer: Halstead Press Pty Limited; Sydney, Australia 1941
- Copyright: Betty Bacon Blunt
- Binding: hard cover
- Printed: recto
- Size: 8 5/8 x 7 1/8″ (22 x 18 cm) slightly larger than the 1940 publications.
a Boy hardcover showing front and back covers.
a Boy hardcover showing the title page.
a Boy hardcover showing printed by Halstead Press
Pty Limited 9-19 Nickson Street, Sydney 1941.
a Boy hardcover showing printed recto.
Later Editions of Blunt’s, Bet It’s A Boy
- 1948 Angus & Robertson, Australian
- 1953 Grosset and Dunlap, Spiral binding
- 1955 Angus & Robertson Hardcover binding and measures approximately 22 x 18.5cm x 1cm thick.
- 1956 Angus & Robertson, London; hard cover – 7½” x 5¼”. [unpaginated] dust wrapper not price clipped 2/6
Photo credit: Little Stour Books
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