First published in London. Book Description: London: Geoffrey Bles, 1950.
Original green cloth in pictorial dustwrapper designed by Pauline Baynes. Colour frontispiece and numerous line drawings in text, all by Pauline Baynes.
Abebooks is ~15k for fine/fine (was $2500 on ebay). Green/blue cloth boards with silver gilt lettering to spine (as originally issued).
1st american: Macmillan Company, New York, 1950. Binding is Hard Cover. . $2.50 price on top of the front flap. Inset illustration of a creature with an umbrella to the rear panel. This edition is listed for ~ $2000 on Abebooks.
Story: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are deported during the air raids of WWII from London to the country house of an eccentric professor. They find life in the house extremely dull, until Lucy discovers a wardrobe that leads to a magical world called Narnia. In Narnia animals can talk and all are ruled over by the wise and benevolent lion God, Aslan. The others don't believe her at first, but soon all of them go through the wardrobe and discover the disquiet in Narnia. The land is being kept in a perpetual winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis, who turns anyone who doesn't obey her into stone. The children join Aslan and the animals loyal to him in an attempt to vanquish Jadis in this Classic childrens novel of Good and Evil.
Order the books were published in:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magicians Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)
An excellent link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia
