Kidnapped — Stevenson, Whitman c.1935, Dust Jacket

📖 Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (Whitman Publishing Co., Racine, Wisconsin, c.1935) — the historical adventure novel first published in 1886, issued here in Whitman’s illustrated Library series for young readers. Blue pebbled hardcover with the original color dust jacket, single-color interior illustrations, and deep red-stained text block edges; near-fine, jacket preserved in a removable archival sleeve.

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
• Publisher: Whitman Publishing Co., Racine, Wisconsin
• Series: The Whitman Library (spine: Classics Series, no. 2130)
• Year: c.1935 (dealer dating; this Whitman printing is confirmed by trade listings)
• Format: Hardcover, blue pebbled paper boards; original color dust jacket, $1.00
• Pages: 234 | ISBN: None (pre-ISBN era)
• Condition: Near-fine; jacket very good — full report below

THE STORY

Kidnapped is Robert Louis Stevenson’s historical adventure of David Balfour, betrayed by his uncle and kidnapped aboard the brig Covenant, who is thrown together with Alan Breck Stewart — a noble, hot-headed Highland Jacobite — across the Scotland of 1751. Stevenson wrote it as a boys’ novel; it first appeared in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886 and was published in book form that year by Cassell & Company, London, under the title “Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751.”

THIS EDITION

Whitman Publishing grew out of Western Printing & Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, which began printing juvenile books around 1915 and through the 1920s and 1930s issued a wide range of children’s titles — adventure stories, series fiction, and affordable illustrated classics — under the Whitman name. This copy carries the full period package: spine lettered with the series line and number 2130, a $1.00 dust jacket branded THE WHITMAN LIBRARY, and a text block stained deep red on all edges. Trade listings confirm the 1935 Whitman printing at 234 pages with illustrations and jacket.

COVER ART & ILLUSTRATIONS

The original dust jacket is lettered KIDNAPPED / by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON over color artwork depicting scenes from the novel — a sword confrontation in period dress against a warm golden ground, and a castaway clinging to wreckage before a sailing ship near rocky cliffs under a teal-and-orange sky — with the WHITMAN imprint and $1.00 price on the front panel. Beneath the jacket, blue pebbled boards are stamped in orange with the title, author, and a single-color vignette of a figure from the story; the spine carries gold lettering with title, author, series line, number 2130, and WHITMAN; the back board shows a full-color scene of a figure in the water with a ship offshore. Inside, single-color illustrations include a plate captioned “David on the Road” and a bold woodcut-style ship’s cabin scene, printed on the same stock as the cross-hatched coastal endpapers. Deep red staining to all text block edges is visible throughout.

WHY IT MATTERS

• A period artifact of Depression-era juvenile publishing: series number 2130, $1.00 jacket price, red-stained edges — the complete 1930s Whitman package, intact.
• Whitman’s library line put classic adventure fiction within reach of young readers between the wars; this copy shows the lightest possible handling — the dealer notes it may be unread.
• Kidnapped itself remains a cornerstone of Scottish adventure fiction, still read more than 130 years after its 1886 serialization.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What edition is this? A Whitman Publishing Co. (Racine, Wisconsin) hardcover, c.1935, from The Whitman Library — spine number 2130 — issued with the original $1.00 color dust jacket.

What condition is it in? Near-fine: solid, tight binding and hinges; bright text block edges with deep red staining; clean pages with no loose, torn, or folded leaves; two light linear indents on the upper outer edge of the back board; jacket shows light edge wear with minor chipping at the lower flap fold corners. Full report below.

Is the dust jacket original? Yes — the original Whitman Library jacket with the $1.00 price intact, now preserved in a removable archival sleeve.

FOR COLLECTORS

Boards, jacket, series numbering, and stained edges all present — the full 1930s Whitman configuration. The two light indents on the back board and the jacket’s small flap-corner chips are honest, minor flaws in an otherwise near-fine copy of a Stevenson classic as young readers actually met it in 1935.

“Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson, published by Whitman, circa 1935.

Blue pebbled glossy paper wrapped hardcover, deep red staining to all text block edges, some single color illustrations, 234 pages.

This is a “near fine” vintage book with a solid, tight binding and hinges. No loose, torn or folded pages. Text block edges are bright, all but completely free of scuffs or marks. May be an unread copy. No name plate affixed or writing. There are two light linear indents on the upper outer edge of the back board.

Matching vintage dust jacket shows a little edge wear in a few places, a little chipping on the lower flap fold corners, but other wise also amazingly preserved. Now in a removable archival sleeve.

A really, really pleasing example of a vintage Whitman, very unusual to see one this clean. Made all the more special because of the content – one of the greatest examples of adventure fiction ever penned!

Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

HFB-SEO-v1: 2026-10-03

1 in stock