“I Know an Old Lady” Graboff 1969 vintage hardcover

📖 “I Know an Old Lady” by Rose Bonne (words) and Alan Mills (music), illustrated by Abner Graboff (1961, Rand McNally). The cumulative nursery rhyme that became one of the most recognizable children’s songs of the 20th century — this copy is the sixth printing, dated 1969, in hardcover with original dust jacket.

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Rose Bonne (lyrics) & Alan Mills (music)
• Illustrator: Abner Graboff (1919–1986)
• Publisher: Rand McNally & Company, Chicago / New York / San Francisco
• Year: Copyright 1961, sixth printing 1969
• Format: Hardcover in dust jacket, gray cloth boards with pink hot-stamp decorations
• Pages: Unpaginated | ISBN: None (pre-ISBN era)
• Condition: Very good — full report below

THE STORY

“I Know an Old Lady” is a cumulative nonsense song in which an old lady swallows increasingly large animals — each to catch the one she swallowed before. The rhyme dates to at least the 19th century (earliest recorded reference: 1872, London music halls, as “Poor Mrs Somebody”). Rose Bonne’s lyrics and Alan Mills’s music, copyrighted in 1952, became the definitive version. Burl Ives recorded it for Brunswick Records in 1953, and it quickly entered the American nursery canon. The song’s escalating absurdity — ending with the old lady swallowing a horse — makes it a favorite for read-alouds and classroom use.

THIS EDITION

Rand McNally published the first illustrated edition in 1961, with Abner Graboff’s bold, graphic artwork bringing the cumulative rhyme to vivid life. This copy is the sixth printing from 1969, as stated on the copyright page (LoC catalog card 61-13980). The book includes sheet music with chords in the final pages, making it usable as a songbook as well as a picture book. Also available in reinforced library binding, as noted on the dust jacket flap.

COVER ART & ILLUSTRATIONS

Abner Graboff’s illustrations are the heart of this edition. The dust jacket front features the old lady in a green rocking chair with a fly on her nose, a black cat with green eyes, all rendered in bold red, teal, green, and orange color blocks. The back jacket shows a cast of stylized farm animals — an orange cow, white goat, orange dog, and green bird — on a red background. Inside, the illustrations use a limited but striking palette of orange, black, green, and red against cream pages. The old lady, the animals, and the cumulative sequence are rendered in a flat, graphic style typical of mid-century children’s book illustration. The bare cloth cover underneath is gray linen with hot pink rocking chair and title decorations.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The Bonne/Mills version (1952) is the most widely known setting of one of the oldest cumulative children’s songs in English — documented as early as 1872
• Abner Graboff (1919–1986) was a prolific mid-century illustrator whose first book, The Sun Looks Down (1954), won the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book award; he also designed album art for Columbia, MGM, and RCA Victor records
• Graboff illustrated the companion title Old Macdonald Had a Farm (1969, Rand McNally) — the two books share the same illustrator, publisher, and era
• The song has been translated into dozens of languages; Graboff’s There Was an Old Lady was translated into Polish in 2020

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What printing is this? Sixth printing, stated and dated 1969 on the copyright page. Original copyright is 1961.

What condition is it in? Very good vintage hardcover — full condition report below.

Is the dust jacket included? Yes, the original dust jacket is present with handling wear, a 2.5″ closed tear on the front, some chipping along the bottom edge, and a price-clipped front flap. It will arrive in a removable archival sleeve.

FOR COLLECTORS

Rather scarce in hardcover with the original dust jacket. Graboff’s illustrations for this title are among his most recognizable — the bold graphic style and limited color palette capture the escalating absurdity of the cumulative rhyme. A nice copy of a classic that bridges children’s literature and American folk music.

This is a “very good” or better vintage hardcover with a crisp, tight binding and board hinges. No loose, torn or folded pages, aside from an X-mas gift inscription dated 1970, no writing. The upper board corners are no bumped, crisp, the lower corners are bumped with just a hint of wear at the tips, not much. The spine head is ever so lightly bumped, bottom edge crisp. The grey cloth is uniform all around, no spotting, tanning or fading. The purple decorations on the front and the lettering on the spine is all crisp and complete, not rubbed. The original dust wrapper shows handling wear at the spine edge (see accompanying images). There 2.5″ closed tear at the front bottom near the spine along with some smaller closed tears with creasing and some chipping along the bottom edge. Some tanning along the upper edge, more visible on the inside rather than on the outside. Front flap has been price clipped. Not a perfect jacket, but still pleasing enough and relatively nice considering it is a children’s book of this vintage. Will arrive in a removable archival sleeve for proper presentation and protection.

Overall, a really nice presentation of a classic children’s rhyme/song.

Rather scarce to find in hardcover, and especially with a jacket.

Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

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