Posted by AstronomerGuy on January 07, 2013 at 01:14:17 user AstronomerGuy.
The Winter 1939 thread has become a "first encounter with Ransome" thread so why not make it a new thread?
My first encounter was also in a library in America, in the early 1960s. My family were all sailing (on the Great Lakes) and the title of WDMTGTS caught my attention. That was my introduction to the canon.
My library had 11 of the 12 books, lacking only WH. I remember actually writing to Lippincott (the American publishers) to see if I could buy it; it was, of course, long out of print by then.
Years later, in 1976 during my first trip to the UK (for an astronomy conference) I immediately went to a bookstore and purchased a copy of WH. I also spent a week then in the Lakes; it was March, and very snowy. That was a wonderful re-introduction to the books!