Queen Holden’s FIRST Paper Doll Book Little Red Riding Hood Triple-Joy-Book Story, Paper Dolls, and Game Annotated and Formatted by Tate Museum Online Original copyright 1927 by Pinkham Press We’ve had this book in our collections for quite some time now and had been mulling over how best to “get it out there”. Largely because it’s Queen Holden’s very FIRST paper doll book as noted by HER on the cover itself, but also because, historical significance to collectors aside, it’s a wonderfully charming book! Queen was only 22 years old at the time the book was published and it was seeing this particular book that brought her to the attention of Samuel Lowe – the rest, they say is Paper Doll history! Little Red Riding Hood was Queen’s only book published by Pinkham Press and is not particularly well known today, even among collectors who pursue her work. In all our many years (decades) of collecting, we’ve never seen another. It is briefly mentioned by Mary Young, in one of her books. ( Paper Dolls and Their Artists, Revised Edition, p. 19) The book, alas, is not pristine. (Not much is at nearly 100 years old!) However, we think the aged-ness lends itself to the charm and winsome nature of the book as well as to the story behind its’ provenance. It’s our understanding that the book was originally Queen’s file copy. She did write on the cover in ink: “My first attempt, Queen Holden” (see cover). Later, Queen gave the book to collector friend Jean Woodcock. Jean had an extensive paper doll collection and was the author of several paper doll reference books. We were fortunate to be able to obtain the book from Jean’s estate through her daughter. It has been held in our collections ever since. We gave considerable thought to “redoing” the book: cleaning it up, removing age spots, and repainting the missing doll page. We even discussed it with Judy M. Johnson (a very talented artist in her own right and experienced in refurbishing and reproducing vintage paper doll art). However, we eventually decided to leave it pretty much “as is”. Largely because it’s Queen’s book and redoing the art, it would not be hers. That said, the one thing we did do was enhance the missing Red Riding Hood doll page. The page looks to have been cut out and removed by a child (Kathy Lawrence? Queen’s daughter and an awesomely talented artist herself.) and the blank back cover is missing. There’s also a stick figure-ish drawing in crayon on the last “blank” page (toddler Kathy?!?). The only copy of the Red Riding Hood paper doll is on the front cover (see photo). We spent a lot of time scanning and then digitizing the art work to give you the best possible enhanced version of the paper doll. We have a very high-end scanner and were able to closely match the colors as well as to get a fairly clear version of the “missing” doll page. We’ve also re-sized the cover doll art to fit with the rest of the book - that was the one easy part! We truly hope you enjoy Queen’s “…first attempt” as much as we do. Print book: 24 pages Kindle book: 26 pages (including cover art); an easy How-to-Convert and Print Guide is included with all formats.