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Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott – what date was this published?

Occasionally, it can be hard to find information about a particular vintage edition of a book. Especially, if the author is popular and there have been many reprints.

In this instance, we were attracted to the very 1940’s cover of this edition of Jo’s Boys, but dating and pricing it has proved to be difficult. It seems to have been produced by Scottish publisher Oliphants Ltd as a Unicorn Classic. Oliphants was bought out by Marshall, Morgan & Scott Ltd in 1945 and liquidated voluntarily and without debts on 27 March 1968.

Oliphants Ltd published mainly religious books, and I have found copies of Little Men and Good Wives online by them, but again, no date. It would be safe to assume the other books in the series came out around the same time, and our best estimation is 1940-60.

We’d love to hear from you if you can cast any further light on the publication date.