Growing up, I had a collection of two or three books that were chock
full of children's stories. Some of them had an illustration or two,
usually spot color but no more than three colors per page.

The books themselves were kind of old, I'd guess at least 20-30 years
old at the time, making them between 35-50ish years old now.

They were hard bound books, bound in a red leather or leatherette.

Some of the stories I remember in them include a number of public
domain stories, such as:

Little Two Eyes
A story of a princess named Briar Rose?
Too-Long (story of a boy living in a foster home and adopting the mutt
of a championship litter from next door)
Puss in boots

several stories which I believe are from the Grimm Brothers.

I think there was gold lettering on the books, and they were marked as
some kind of treasury of children's stories.

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Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on 20 Jan 2003 14:30 PST

Were the stories you mentioned all in one book? Or spread throughout
the different books? Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by mynn-ga on 20 Jan 2003 14:48 PST

probably spread throughout the books.

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Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on 22 Jan 2003 15:03 PST

Do you recall if the books were entirely children's stories or if by
chance they contained other items? I owned a set of "The Book of
Knowledge" (which I loved) and each volume typically contained a
couple of children's stories and a fairy tale as well as poetry and
then articles similiar to what you might find in an encyclopedia. The
binding was a reddish color.

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Clarification of Question by mynn-ga on 24 Jan 2003 11:00 PST

Yes, it was full of children's stories.

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Clarification of Question by mynn-ga on 27 Jan 2003 06:48 PST

I remember now another story: the old Jewish tale of the man with the
small house; he goes to the Rebbi (wise man in this version) and they
move, at his direction, the cow, the goats, the ducks, and the mother
in law into his house. Then, when the man can't stand it anymore, the
Rebbi (wise man in this version) told him to move all of the animals
and mother in law out ... suddenly the man had so much more room.

Mynn,

I fear you have put your finger on it.  You use the term "public
domain" - and that could well be what this series was, a collection of
copyright-free public domain children's stories.  It's the sort of
book often found in cheap book stores and remainder stores, in cheap
supermarket chains, and similar.  They are often printed in Asia or
Eastern Europe, and are typically printed on cheap paper to bulk the
book and make it seem extra thick and extra good value for money.  The
"treasury" term is almost generic.

If you can remember more, you may prove me wrong - so any extra clues
and memories could be very helpful.

Good luck with your quest,  read2live

My first thought on this was that these are from the Andrew Lang Fairy
Tale Books. Briar Rose is a variant on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.
Little Two Eyes is usually called "Little One-Eye, Little Two-Eyes,
Little Three-eyes". But the Lang books are colored according to the
names: Blue Fairy Book, Red Fairy Book, etc. and I can't find the "Too
Long" story.

Index to Andrew Lang's Fairy Books
http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~emily/Docs/lang.html

Once Upon a Time
http://www.princeton.edu/~cotsen/packet/

Regards,
luciaphile-ga

I happen to REALLY love books, and these were higher quality than
you'd expect of a cheap book store book or a remainder store book (are
those like close out stores?).

The time frame in which they were purchased was before my hometown had
a bookstore and books weren't carried in dime stores, etc, with the
exclusion of comic and coloring books.

My mom, to get us books, generally browsed bookstores on the military
side of town and on  the 'richer' sides of town, where most of our
books for a long time came from.

And if they were 35-50 years old by now, would that still be in the
time frame Asia or EE did a lot of our printing work?

I believe I've looked through the "fairy" books but I'll find them and
look through them again. I've found the story of "little one eyes, two
eyes, and three eyes" on the 'net (It's an old german folk tale), but
not briar rose or too-long.

I'm sure it wasn't a classic gathering, because of the more modern
tale of "too long" referencing cars, dogs, and breeding and dog shows.

Thanks so far ....

You'll find 'Briar Rose' here:
http://fairytalestr.koolhost.com/sbeauty.html

Mynn,

When I was growing up we had a series of books entitled Journeys
Through Bookland by Charles Sylvester.  It had about 10 volumes in it.
 Our series had red leatherette covers on them but I have also seen
(on the web) copies that had a green cover.  I was surprised to learn
that the series had 10 volumes - I think as children we only looked at
the first volume!

There were various stories in the books - one volume had various Aesop
fables, poems, nursery rhymes, another had the story of Swiss Family
Robinson and Robinson Crusoe, etc.  The books were published in 1939
by Bellows-Reeves in Chicago.  Hope this helps.

llrob: maybe. I read through the story lists on various sites; while I
saw some familiar stories, I didn't see specifically the german tale
of the three sisters (one eyes, two eyes, and three eyes), or what I
thought was "too long" but it is an impressive collection
nevertheless!