Jack Heaton Series by E. Frederick Collins

The Publisher Frederick A. Stokes did not print many juvenile series books. Mattson's guide only lists two series. Here is one of them: The Jack Heaton Series.

The Jack Heaton Series is a three book series published between 1919-1921. Jack Heaton encounters mysteries and adventures in the Yukon, Mexico, Oil fields, and with submarines. The books have numerous glossy ilustrations by different artists-Owen, Morgan Dennis and Charles E. Cartwright. Typical well constructed books by Stokes.


The author A. (Archie) Frederick Collins (1869-1952) was more well known as an inventor and engineer than as a writer. He wrote the Radio Amateur's Handbook which is still in print in an 80 plus edition.He invented a form of a wireless telephone in 1899. With his inventions he founded the Collins Wireless Telephone Company. The history of this inventionj is quite fascinating. Read here for more:
http://www.sparkmuseum.com/COLLINS.HTM

In a blast from the future, Collins partnered with some businessmen to help take his company public. Unfortunately he was indicted and convicted for using the mails to defraud in selling worthless stock. Apparently claims were made by some of his partners that calls could be made in a similar way to cellular phones of today.
Collins spent one year (1913)of his three year prison sentence incarcerated.

After his release he wrote numerous books including the series noted here.

Here are the books:

1. Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator 1919
2. Jack Heaton, Oil Prospector 1920
3. Jack Heaton, Gold Seeker 1921

The Deer Lodge Series by W. Gordon Parker

The great outdoors was a popular theme for juvenile series books in the late 19th and early 20th century. This three book series is a good example. The Deer Lodge Series was published by Lee and Shepard and written by W. Gordon Parker.

The stories follow Grant Burton, Perry Langdon and their buddies on various outdoor adventures. Hunting, fishing, and water sports are just some of the highlights. "The Boys are manly, honest and of good principle". The books have one glossy picture, the frontispiece, and numerous other line drawn illustrations.
The line drawn illustrations as well as the frontispieces were done by Parker himself.

The three books were copyrighted between 1898 and 1900. Although I am showing only covers here today, based on the previous patterns of Lee and Shepard, the books did originally come with dust jackets.

W. Gordon Parker was an author as well as a ranked tennis player as a young man. He shot himself through the heart with a pistol at his home in Charlevoix, Michigan in 1928

The Books:
1. Six Young Hunters; or, The Adventures of the Greyhound Club 1898
2. Grant Burton, the Runaway; or, The Mishaps of a Schoolboy 1899
3. Rival Boy Sportsmen; or, The Mink Lake Regatta 1900

Unknown Series Book

Here is another unknown series book. The series will be reviewed on 11/20/2009.
Here are the hints.
1. Series book published between 1880-1930. (Bad clue)
2. Author spent a year in prison because of stock fraud. (Great Clue)

Franconia Series-Boxed Set- Harper and Brothers

The Franconia Series second editions were published by Harper and Brothers in the early 1880's.
Here is the boxed set for this edition. Unfortunately I do not have the box top. The side of the box doies however have the book label.


19th century series most often were published at one time by their publishers in boxed sets. This is a nice example

Unkown Series Book

Here is a another unknown series book. It dates between 1880-1930. How's this for a hint. The author shot himself . You need another hint. OK. The author did all the illustrations for the series.

Franconia Series by Jacob Abbott

As has been noted before, Jacob Abbott was an incredibly prolific author juveniles in the 19th century. The ten volume Franconia Series was one of his series.

These moralistic stories revolve around Beechnut. He is a youngster from Switzerland who lives in the White Mountains and interacts with the other characters in the series.

The books as noted here were initially published in the 1850's by Harper and Brothers. As opposed to many of the other Abbott books , these stories were only published by Harper and Brothers (in the US), Allman published the English editions.



1. Malleville 1850
2. Mary Bell 1850
3. Ellen Linn 1852
4. Wallace 1850
5. Beechnut 1850
6. Stuvyesant 1853
7. Agnes 1853
8. Mary Erskine 1850
9. Rodolphus 1852
10. Caroline 1853

Later between 1878 and 1881 the books were reprinted by Harpers. At that time there were only 5 Franconia books. Each new book had two of the early books combined into one volume. They were as follows.

Beechnut/Rodolphus
Ellen Linn/Stuyvesant
Caroline/Agnes
Malleville/Wallace
Mary Erskine/Mary Bell

Two late editions were published by Harper and Brothers. The green book with the peripheral cover decoration was published in the early 1900's. The books with the reading boy was also published in the early 1900's but the books of this format had only one Franconia book within it as opposed to the two story books.

The Boys' Story of the Railroad Series by Burton E. Stevenson

The Boys' Story of the Railroad Series is a four book series that was first published between 1905 and 1912. The books were reprinted into the 1930's. The stories involve teenagers working in and around the railroad. Each book contains six or seven glossy illustrations done by either John Goss, L.J. Bridgman or A.P. Button.

The author Burton E. Stevenson (1872-1962) wrote more than forty books in addition to these juveniles. As a youngster he published a monthly newspaper called The Boy's Own continuously for five years. Besides writing Stevenson was quite accomplished. He was the director of Library War Service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. He also founded the American Library in Paris. He died at the age of 89 in Chillicothe, Ohio.


Stevenson's Railrroad series was published by L. C. Page and Compnay.
L.C. Page & Company published a number of juvenile series in the twentieth century. Mattson's guide lists 11 series and there are a number of others, mostly nonfiction, that were published also. Page succeeded Joseph Knight in 1897. In 1914 Page supplemented its list when it bout the plates of the Dana Estes Company. The Page books are generally oversized and well made. Probably the best known of its publications were the Little Colonel Series written by Annie Fellows Johnston.

The Books:
1.The Young Section Hand 1905
2. The Train Dispatcher 1907
3. The Young Train Master 1909
4. The Young Apprentice 1912

The Barrows Brothers Series by Jack Bechdolt

John Ernest Bechdolt (1884–1954) was mainly known as a short story writer and as a newspaperman. He wrote more than 6000 short stories. In addition to the Barrows Brothers Series noted here, he wrote with the collaboration of his wife the Dulcie Series. His output included a number of science fiction stories including a Lost race story included in the Barrows Brothers Series He worked for the Seattle Post Intelligencer. A number of his short stories were produce as movies.

The Barrow Brothers Series is a five book series published in 1931 by Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. The books center around Bob and Paul Barrow and their adventures in various locales such as the Arctic and Mexico. These books were well written and are among the more entertaining stories written as juvenile series in their era. Relatively hard to find in dust jacket.

The books.


1. Hidden Waters
2. Frozen Treasure
3. The Race of the Rails
4. Jungle Diamonds
5. Lost Vikings

More Boxed Books-H.M. Caldwell

Most boxed individual books are rather ordinary where the labeled box contains a box that neatly fills up the box. Of course, some boxes themselves have elaborate designs and illustrations. Today I thought I would show an individual boxed book which is on the bizarre side.

As some of you may know, I am slowly working toward putting together a history and bibliography of the H.M. Caldwell publishing house. I hope to complete it before I keel over. It will take the same format as my henryaltemus.com website.

Anyway here is a Caldwell book. The box has a labeled flap but otherwise is quite plain. It measures 9.5 x 5.

The box inside however is quite unusual. It is Over the Nuts and Wine written by James Clarence Harvey. It was published in 1906. Look at its shape. It is a 3D representation of a bottle of wine within an ice bucket. The original glassine dust jacket was found within the box. This 134 page book has a different "toast" on each page.

Quite an interesting boxed book.

More Boxed Books- Grosset and Dunlap

Boxed books come in all shapes and sizes. From sets of multiple books to singly boxed books, there are a myriad of styles, shapes and varieties.

Today's box is somewhat unusual. This two book box is from the publisher Grosset and Dunlap. The jacketed books within the box are Puss-In-Boots and the Man in the Moon and Puss-In-Boots and Robinson Crusoe. Originally published by Harpers in the 1920's , they now are part of the Puss-In-Boots, Jr. Series written by David Cory author of The Little Jack Rabbit Stories, Little Journeys to Happyland and many others.




The box is labeled with nice illustrative pictures on the cover and sides. What makes this box somewhat unusual are the two wooden Puss-In-Boots figurines inserted into the box. These are well made models. I suspect 1930's publication date but I am unsure. This box would have appealed to kids and I suspect was instrumental in improving sales.

This is another example of what probably is a very large number of unusual boxed books variants.

The Young Alaskans by Emerson Hough

The Young Alaskans is a relatively uncommon five book series published by Harper and Brothers. These books were initially published between 1908 and 1922 and subsequently were reprinted numerous times. Harper and Brothers was not a major publisher of juvenile series books with only twelve series by this house noted in Mattson's guide. The stories chronicle the outdoor adventures of three Alaskan boys.

1. The Young Alaskans 1908
2. Y.A. on the Trail 1911
3. Y.A. in the Rockies 1913
4. Y.A. in the Far North 1918
5. Y.A. on the Missouri 1922



If you have one of these books, dating it is really quite easily done because Harper used an alphabetical key. Up to 1911 the date appeared on the title page.

Thereafter each month was designated by a letter.
A=January M-December. J was not included in the month list.

A letter was used for each year:
M-1912
N-1913
etc....T-1919.....
Z-1925.....A-1926

Thus A-M would be January, 1912
B-N would be February, 1913




Emerson Hough (1857-1923) wrote this series as well as a number of other novels, most of which are westerns. He was a noted conservationist. He spent his early years in the frontier west. Later he graduated from the University of Iowa. Although trained as an attorney, he spent many years exploring and traveling throughout the west. At the age of forty he wrote The Singing Mouse Stories and that launched his writing career. He died secondary to complications from a surgical procedure.






















Did you figure out the unknown book covers?? I know the guy who claims to be our
resident fisherman did not come close. He was too embarrassed to make his guess in the
public comments. He will remain anonymous!!

Advertising Cover- Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard

Advertising covers were a great way to promote a product in the 19th century. A number of envelopes have been seen with pictures of a publishing house's headquarters. Individual books are less often shown on envelopes. Here is a great example of the latter.

Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard is a book that pictures the various aspects of Army life during the Civil War. The subtitle is " How they lived and talked, and what they did and suffered while fighting for the flag". Reviews of the book noted that this book was one of the few that actually portrayed the daily life of the soldier. Despite the story being fictional, the anecdotes included here were very lifelike. Sales of the serialized novel exceeded all expectations.

It was written by Wilbur F. Hinman (1840-1905) who was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Ohio Regiment. He was born in Berea, Ohio. He attended Baldwin University prior to enlisting in the Union Army in 1861.

The publisher of the 1887 first edition was The Williams Publishing Company in Cleveland-not exactly a major house.

This is a great illustrated advertising cover featuring that book.

Unknown Series Books

Here is another series unknown.

I have included two books because this one may be quite tough. You can sort of see the lettering at the top of one of the books. The only hint is that this is a juvenile series published between 1880-1940. Good luck.

Lothrop. Lee and Shepard- First Edition or Not

Generally, if a book says copyright 1903 and on the same page it says -"published August, 1903" a reasonable deduction would be that the book is a 1903 book. Well, with Lothrop, Lee and Shepard series books the deduction may be reasonable but the conclusion may very well be wrong.

It appears that Lothrop, Lee and Shepard published numerous series books where this scenario is just the case.

Here are several examples. The first comes from a book by Albertus Dudley, Following the Ball. It is part of the Phillips Exeter Series. I have three copies of this book. Each of the covers is slightly different but the copyright pages are identical. It is shown here. Two of my copies were published by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard. This instantly dates these books from 1905 or later. The third book has Lee and Shepard 1903 on the title page indicating this one is the true first. In addition the ads are different for all three. But to a person not knowing the history of the publishing house any of the three might be listed as a first edition.

You think not. Doubters please look at this ad taken today from ABE. In fact most of the books in this series are advertised as first editions on ABE although most likely
only a couple of them really are.

Following the Ball
Dudley, Albertus T.

Book Description: Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard, Boston, MA U.S,A, 1903. Hard Cover. Book Condition: Good+. No Jacket. Charles Copeland (illustrator). First Edition. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. Gray cloth, gilt lettering, blue red and black decoration of boys playing football, frontis repeats cover graphics w 3 additional b&w illustrations, mild cover soils and ink along board edges, worn football decoration on spine, spine somewhat rolled, minimum of library artifacts (catalog number on copyright page, book infor on rep and small stampon rear cover, 316 plus 6 pp. advertisements.

Here is another example. This one comes from the Rolt-Wheeler U. S. Service Series. Both of my copies of The Boy with the U.S. Life savers have the published August, 1915 date on their copyright page. Yet one has ads that go to the previously published book in 1914 whereas the ads in the other book go to the penultimate book in the series published in 1927. Again the latter book could be easy to mistake for a first edition if the seller is unfamiliar with the series.

I have seen this pattern with numerous Lothrop, Lee and Shepard series books including those written by Stratemeyer, Tomlinson, etc.

The buyer/collector needs to study the ads before determining the edition.

Rust Craft Shop Book Plates

The Rust Craft Shop was discussed in a September 27, 2009 blog. At the time it was noted that they produced a number of paper products including book plates.

Here is an example of this shop's work. Clearly not very elegant, these book plates are rather standard fare. Twenty five book plates are included in the box. I do not know the original price but clearly they are on the cheap end.

Edward Sylvester Ellis

In the field of series books Edward Sylvester Ellis (1840-1916) was certainly one of the most prolific authors I have encountered. Besides writing more than 150 books for juveniles-most of which were in series form- he wrote several hundred other works -historical, nonfiction, dime novels etc.

Denis R. Rogers assembled a several hundred page manuscript years ago which to the best of my knowledge was never published. It includes sections on his dime novels , pseudonyms, works (both major and minor) and other pertinent items about Edward Ellis. I have yet to see a more comprehensive work on any juvenile author from this ear (mid-19th-mid-20th century).

Here are some details about Ellis' life. These come from Rogers' work. He was born in 1840 in Geneva, Ohio. Clearly his family moved during his youth since he graduated from New Jersey Normal School in Trenton in about 1860. He began his career as a school teacher in Red bank, New Jersey. After early success, in particular as a dime novel writer, he gave up teaching to become a full time writer. This was in 1874.

In addition to the books Ellis wrote for motion pictures and also penned several musicals.

HIs juvenile books were published by a virtual who's who of publishing houses. Although Porter and Coates was a mainstay, numerous others published his first and later editions-Price-McGill, Merriam, Cassell, Dana Estes,Hurst, George M. Hill and many many more.

I will be reviewing some of his series as time goes on.

Book Corner Protectors

Book corner protectors are a rare find. Today I am showing two different ones.

The first I took off a Wanamaker published book. This book was published as part of the Wanamaker's Young People's Library and was published in the 1902-1910 era.

The second book corner protector is the more interesting. It is from an unknown Lee and Shepard book. Thus it was produced before 1905. It looks to me like it was hand stamped. What I mean is that Lee and Shepard probably bought blank protectors and then stamped them individually. On the Lee and Shepard item there is a line that says Pat Mar 26,1895 Worchester, Mass. Therefore the production of this item is narrowed down to the years between 1895-1905.

What intrigues me more about these items is when they were used. Clearly the corner protectors are too cumbersome to have been used with jacketed or boxed books. This must mean that some books that came from the publisher did not have jackets (or boxes). This is contrary to my conjecture that all books of this era originally were boxed or had dust jackets. Indeed there must have been a subset that came with the book corner protectors only.
Hopefully we can learn more about these items and see more examples as time goes on.

Wonder of War Series by Francis Rolt-Wheeler

Francis Rolt-Wheeler has been discussed before. He wrote three series that were published by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard. Here is the Wonder of War Series. This four book series was first published between 1917 and 1919 and reprinted for a number of years thereafter.

The books were illustrated with numerous photographs. These well made books were typical of the better bound series books done by this publishing house. Each book in this series described a different aspect of the "Great War"-World War I.

They are not too common but with a decent effort all four can be found in dust jackets. I would rate their scarcity at about the same level as the earlier U.S. Service Series by Rolt-Wheeler. They are not as rare as the Museum Series books that he penned.

The books:
1. The Wonder of War in the Air 1917
2. The Wonder of War on Land 1918
3. The Wonder of War at Sea 1919
4. The Wonder of War in the Holy Land 1919

George Washington Hood- Cover designer

George Washington Hood designed the book cover on the Deering of Deal book shown a few days ago.

If you look at the fence post that the boy has his left hand on, you can see the initials GH.

George Washington Hood (1869-1949) was an illustrator and a painter who designed a number of covers in the first and second decade of the twentieth century. He attended the National Academy of design and lived in New Jersey. Although he was known as a children's book illustrator, he also sold paintings done in watercolor and oils.

Unknown Book

Here is another unknown. This book was published between 1880 and 1940.
It is part of a juvenile series. No other hints. Answer to be shown on 10/28. Good luck.

The Baron Trump Series by Ingersoll Lockwood

The Baron Trump books were a four volume series published by Lee and Shepard. The books detail marvelous fantasy adventures of Baron Trump and others. Great line drawn illustrations are seen throughout the books which were also called Ingersoll Lockwood's Wonder Books. You have to wonder if L. Frank Baum helped himself to some of the ideas here for his Oz books.

1. The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger 1889
2. The Extraordinary Experiences of Little Captain Dopplekop on the Shores of Bubblehead 1891
3. The Wonderful Deed and Doings of Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib 1891
4. Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey 1892


Ingersoll Lockwood (1841-1918) was the author of this series. He was better known however as a New York City attorney. Interesting enough his most notorious case appeared to involve the estate of a Mrs. Todd. This case revolved around whether the old lady in question had died naturally or was poisoned and if Lockwood should be the executor of the estate. Details about this inquiry appeared frequently in the New York Times over a number of months in 1905. After investigations and an autopsy it was determined she was poisoned. Great 1905 CSI stuff.

For dime novel interest the brother-in-law of Mrs. Todd's daughter was Sinclair Tousey. Tousey was the brother of Frank Tousey and a partner of his in the Frank Tousey Publishing Company. Small world, huh.

River and Wilderness Series By Edward Ellis

The River and Wilderness Series was a three book series published in 1893 . It was written by prolific author Edward Ellis. (Blog about Ellis coming in the next couple of days).Initially published by Price-McGill, it was later reprinted by Merriam Company, Henry T. Coates and Winston. The Coates book was part of its multiauthored Roundabout Series. The stories are about Indians and the frontier.


1. The River Fugitives 1893
2. The Wilderness Fugitives 1893
3. Lena Wingo 1893

The Price-McGill Company was one of the publishing houses that if you blinked, you missed it. Of course, I suppose not being in a mecca of publishing probably did not help this firm much. They were located in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Price-McGill Company was founded in 1891. It was succeeded by the Merriam Company in January of 1894. So it had a two year active window. During this period it did publish a number of juvenile books including the River and Wilderness Series (as noted here) and the War Whoop Series by Lieut. R. Jayne (an Ellis pseudonym).

Frank Merriwell Comics

Every now and then a series book character will make a leap into another form of entertainment. The movies are probably one of the most common. Another modality is the comics. We have previously discussed Frank Merriwell. Of course in addition to being a dime novel hero, Merriwell appeared in his own juvenile series published by Street and Smith, Federal, and McKay. The former two publishers' series have been reviewed.

Merriwell , of course, appeared in movies, plays, radio, etc. I thought I would show some examples of his comic book adventures.

In 1940 Street and Smith published "Shadow Comics". A number of characters beside the Shadow were featured in these books. Bill Barnes, Doc Savage, and Frank Merriwell.
Merriwell excited us for four issues.

He had his own comic in 1955. It lasted four issues and was called Frank Merriwell at Yale. It was published by the Charlton Comics Group.

Certainly one of the major heroes of an era since past.

The Magnet Stories by Lynde Palmer

This book is published by HB Nims in 1877

The Magnet Series is a four book series written by Lynde Palmer ( Mary Louise Parmalee Peebles 1833-1915). Peebles authored a number of books mainly religious/moralistic and temperance tales. She was born in Lansingburg, New York and graduated from the Lansingburg Academy in 1850.

This series is another one that shows the evolution of publishing houses in the 19th century. The first 3 books in the series were published by Moore and Nims. This Troy, New York publishing house. Moore and Nims begun in 1858 was preceded by Merriam, Moore and Co. and succeeded by H.B. Nims & Company in 1869. H.B. Nims was the first publisher of book #4.





Later HB Nims was succeeded by Nims and Knight in 1882. Finally Joseph Knight moved from Troy to Boston and formed his own company Joseph Knight in 1892.

Lynde Palmer's books were immensely popular. Nims reported sales of more than 100,000 of her books. This was a very large number for books of this ilk.





This book is a first edition published by Moore and Nims in 1868

Here is the series list:
1. Drifting and Steering 1867
2. One Day's Weaving 1867
3. Archie's Shadow 1868
4. John Jack 1870

In advertisements: "To show the ugliness of pride and the value and beauty of love".

Here is the publishing history
1. Moore and Nims-Volumes 1-3
2. H.B. Nims and Company- Volumes 1-4
3. Nims and Knight #1-4
4. Joseph Knight #1-4
5. Ward and Drummond #1-4



This book is an HB Nims book published in 1885.

Merry's Museum Subscription Receipt

Children's and juvenile magazines of the 19th century were a great place for up and coming authors to get their starts. One of the key journals was Robert Merry's Museum. This journal which was published between 1841 and 1872 and is one of the best known of the era.

In a number of years Peter Parley (Samuel Griswold Goodrich) was an editor.
Here is a great bit of ephemera. This is a receipt for a subscription for 1856. The publisher as can be seen was S.T. Allen.

For more about juvenile periodicals of 19th century see: http://www.merrycoz.org/bib/intro.htm

The Bodley Books by Horace Scudder

The Bodley Books are an interesting travelogue series of the 19th century. Written by Horace Scudder (1838-1902) a Boston native who was famous for his editorship of the Riverside Magazine for Young People, this group of books was divided into two separate series.

The first series tells of the Bodley family adventures beginning in 1848 and ending in 1852. The second series outlines the adventures of the Bodley grandchildren in the early 1880's.

The Bodley family originally however did not appear in book form but rather was introduced in the Riverside Magazine in 1867 .







Both series relate the history of the areas traveled in. The books are filled with illustrations taken from various non-original sources.

This travelogue series of eight books also illustrates how some publishing houses evolved as they changed name partners. Certain books in this series can be found with different imprints.

Hurd and Houghton was the first publisher of books #1 and #2. This house was active between 1864 and 1878. In 1878 it merged with James R. Osgood and Company to become Houghton, Osgood and Company. (They were the original publishers of books #3 and 4 for the In 1880 Houghton , Osgood and Co. was succeeded by Houghton, Miflin and Company which is still extant today. Houghton and Miflin published the first editions of Book #5 and the three books of the second series.


The books:
First Series
1. Doings of the Bodley Family in Town and Country-- 1875
2. The Bodley's Telling Stories-- 1877
3. The Bodleys on Wheels--1878
4. The Bodleys Afoot--1879
5. Mr. Bodley Abroad--1880

Second Series
1. The Bodley Grandchildren and Their Journey to Holland-- 1882
2. The English Bodley Family--1883
3. The Viking Bodleys --1884

The publishing history
Books #1, #2 Hurd and Houghton
Books #1-4 Houghton, Osgood and Company
All the books-Houghton, Miflin and Company

Deering Series by Latta Griswold

The Deering Series is a set of five books that relate the adventures of boys/young men at prep school and college. The stories are well illustrated with numerous glossy pictures and were published by Macmillan. It was one of only three pre-1930 series listed in Mattson. The books of this series are very hard to find in dust jacket.

Latta Griswold (1876-1931) authored the series. Griswold attended the Princeton Theological Institute and graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York in 1905. He was a rector at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox, Massachusetts at the time of his death. In 1926 he founded the Lenox School.

The Deering Series
1.Deering of Deal 1912
2. Deering at Princeton 1913
3. The Winds of Deal 1914
4. Deal Woods 1915
5. The Tides of Deal 1922

Unknown Book-Can you identify it??

I thought I would occasionally give the one or two people who read this blog a challenge. Can you identify this book?

Here is the hint. It is a series book.
Ok maybe not much of a hint but I think a clever (very clever) person can figure it out.

Answer tomorrow.

Jacob Abbott and the Pseudonym Erodore

Jacob Abbott has been mentioned previously. Although best known for his Rollo books, he authored numerous other series and single titles.

His early books from the 1820's and 1830's can be found easily today but the first editions of those titles are somewhat scarce. Not well known is that he wrote some titles early on using the pseudonyms of Erodore and Marianne. These books are seen rarely.

Apparently Abbott was teaching philosophy and mathematics at Amherst College when in 1924 he joined a secret literary society at the Andover Theological Seminary. A requirement at the Society was that each member create a palindromic pseudonym. Thus, Erodore was created. Using the Erodore name he wrote the book shown here.

For details about Abbott's "Erodore" books see A Bibliography of Jacob Abbott by Carl Weber.

Here is one of those very scarce Erodore books.

Ralph Henry Barbour Boxed Book

In the last post I showed a nice boxed set of a series from the 1870's. Boxes are not just seen with series/sets. There are many other styles and formats of boxed books.
Today I thought I would show a box that has a book by a previously noted author: Ralph Henry Barbour.

Barbour wrote a number of romance novels in the early 1900's Most were published by Lippincott. Some Lippincott books have been seen with pictorial dust jackets , others boxed with glassine jackets.





Here is a nice example. Most often the box cover is similar but not an exact duplicate of the book cover.
You can see that here.
This book , My Lady of the Fog, was published in 1908.
On one of the flaps of the box the particulars about the book including the price is noted.

Dotty Dimple Series Boxed Set

Everyone has their favorite collectibles. In the book world mine are 19th century boxed sets. That is not to say I have many of them but to me they are very special.
Lee and Shepard, one of the giants in juvenile series book publishing in that era, produced a boxed set for virtually every series they published. Initially the books would be published separately and then finally combined into a boxed set after the requisite number of books were done.

Here on the back of an advertising flyer for the Quinnebasset Series written by Sophie May is a great listing of a number of May's series with pictures of the boxed sets.






Pictured here is the a boxed set for the Dotty Dimple Series. The last of the six books in this series was published in 1870. All six of my books have 1876 on the title page. Thus this is a later set. I would have thought that Lee and Shepard only did one set per series. That is, each boxed set for this series published over a number of year period would have the same paste-on cover and side labels. Clearly I was mistaken.

Although the picture is small (even on the original), on the bottom left of the advertising flyer shown here is a picture of the Dotty Dimple box. The cover picture is different from the one seen on my box.

I think because of popularity and large publishing runs that the Lee and Shepard boxed sets are easier to find than other publisher's works.

Here are the six books of this series.
Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's 1868
DD at Home 1868
DD out West 1868
DD at Play 1869
DD at School 1869
DD's Flyaway 1870

George W. Peck Biography- Peck's Bad Boy Author

George Wilbur Peck, writer, newspaper editor, politician and statesman was born in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York on September 28, 1840.

Pre War Years

Peck's family history has been well worked out going back to the early 1600's. His ancestors who settled in the Hartford, Connecticut area were originally from Essex, England. Later between 1803 and 1805 Peck's family moved to Jefferson County, New York where he was born. His parents, David B. Peck, a tavern keeper, and Alzenia Joslin Peck moved to Cold Spring, Wisconsin about 1843. It appears his paternal grandfather, Luman Peck also made the trip as he was buried in a Cold Spring cemetery in 1844. Peck had two siblings, Ann E. Peck and Chauncey E. Peck.

Details of his early years are poorly documented. The family moved to Whitewater in about 1843. George received his education in the Whitewater public schools in what was called the "Farmers' College the country school, located at the crossroads". His first job was at the Whitewater Register. The Register was established in March, 1857, thus Peck was 16. Later he was a foreman at the Watertown Republican where he worked for $3.50 per week.

In about 1860 he was a clerk in the Janesville hotel called the Hyatt House getting $25 per month. This elegant facility was completed in 1857 and burnt down in January, 1867. Although Peck notes in an autobiographical blurb that he left the employ of the hotel when it went broke in 1860, this is not in accord with the facts which reveals an ongoing business until 1867.

After leaving the hotel he married Francena Rowley of Delavan in 1860.

In early 1861 John W. Blake sold his interest in the Jefferson County Republican Newspaper to Peck and J.E. Atwater. Peck noted later that his half was "Putting my labor and influence against what my partner owed". Peck's partner was Robert Tompkins as of September 1861. In September 1863 Peck sold out and left for the war. At that point with new management the paper was renamed the Jefferson Banner.

Post War Years

Peck returned to Wisconsin in 1866 after service with the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry in the Civil War. During the war he rose to the rank of second lieutenant serving with both Company L and Company E.

Upon his return in 1866 he along with Jedediah Bowen as his editor began the weekly Ripon Representative. This newspaper was published in 1866 and 1867. The comic sketches of Terence McGrant were first published here. They were seen by Marcus "Brick" Pomeroy, a fellow Mason, who offered him a position to work at a new newspaper in New York-the Democrat as an editor/writer. The offer of $40 per week clearly difficult to turn down. Peck continued to write McGrant sketches in New York for the newspaper.

He worked with James H. Lambert at the New-York Democrat. James thereafter in 1871 published Peck's first book Adventures of One Terence McGrant. This book was a collation of the columns that Peck had written about McGrant. Interestingly there is an ad for the New-York Democrat newspaper within the book. It must have been very shortly thereafter that the paper's publication was stopped. Lambert went on to a career in the newspaper business becoming the managing editor of the Philadelphia Times. I can find no evidence that Lambert published any other books.

When the New-York Democrat failed, Peck returned to Wisconsin in August, 1871 to join the staff of Pomeroy's La Crosse newspaper- the La Crosse Democrat. The Pomeroy newspapers were conducted on "red-hot democratic principles". And despite their anti Republican leanings- Peck who voted for Lincoln in 1864 and Pomeroy worked well together.

Upon his return to La Crosse he worked as an editor for the Democrat with John Symes and Alfred E. Haven. Because of financial reverses Pomeroy sold out to Symes and Peck in 1872. The paper's name was changed then to the LaCrosse Liberal Democrat. They worked together until 1874 when Peck left to start his weekly newspaper "The Sun". Interestingly a number of years later in 1879 Swain published Peck's second book Peck's Fun under the Symes, Swain and Company, Milwaukee imprint. This publishing house was active from 1878 to 1892 at which time they were succeeded by Swain and Tate.

After four years in La Crosse the Sun was not doing well. A move to Milwaukee (the big city) for Peck's Sun was undertaken and the newspaper circulation boomed. Within a short time his weekly had attained a circulation of more than 100,000 by 1884. The popularity of his Weekly newspaper cannot be overstated. The population of Milwaukee was 138,000 at the time. The newspaper with the second highest circulation was the Germania at 50,000 weekly copies. He owned and edited Peck's Sun until 1890 when he handed over the reins to his son, George Peck, Jr. The newspaper was subsequently sold to the Dankolers who consolidated it with the Saturday Star and the South Milwaukee Star.

Peck operated his weekly Peck's Sun out of the five story Evening Wisconsin Building at the corner of Wisconsin and Michigan Streets. In the 1880's it was the youngest of the English language newspapers in Milwaukee but its popularity and growth was quite spectacular at the time. It had the latest perfecting press able to run at a capacity of 15,000 per hour.

During the 12 years that Peck ran the Sun in Milwaukee he wrote a series of stories about Hennery who subsequently became known as Peck's Bad Boy. These tales of the outlandish pranks and the various bits of insulting behavior toward all of society by the "Bad Boy" became immensely popular leading to the publication of a number of Peck's Bad Boy books beginning in 1883. Other books which were compilations of Peck's humorous columns also were published making George Peck a household name and his newspaper unbelievably popular.
Peck's Sun ad 1889

The inspiration for Hennery-the Bad Boy- came from E.J. Watson who was a telegraph messenger boy that Peck met in the early 1880's. Apparently Watson thought up many of the stories used by Peck. Mr Watson had in his possession a letter from Peck "To my friend E. J. Watson, who, as a boy, gave me the first idea that culminated in the Peck's Bad Boy Series". Interestingly, earlier in Peck's career he did not quite remember Watson and attributed the Bad Boy's earliest story to his son -- "Well, my son came in one day and told me a story about a boy.....That struck me as funny, and I wrote it up....".

By the 1890's comedy troupes (Mainly Atkinson's Comedy Company) were performing Peck's Bad Boy on stage all over the east and midwest. The Bad Boy went on to appear in three movies, was the subject of two board games, was featured in a number of comic books and was the the star of magic lantern slide shows at the theatre.

Although many found the exploits of Peck's Bad Boy humorous and generally good natured fun, this was by no means uniform. An editorial in February, 1884 New York Tribune stated "..are distressing examples of the crimes against good taste and decency that are committed in the name of American humor...." Certainly these stories were written at a time when a percentage of the population still clung dearly to Victorian mores, temperance, class distinctions and the like. All things that Peck made fun of in his stories.

Politics

Before Peck entered into significant public office, he had dabbled a bit with local politics. In 1867 he was the city treasurer in Ripon. While in La Crosse he was the Chief of Police in 1874. And in 1874-1875 he served as Chief Clerk of the Legislative Assembly as well as Assistant State Treasury Agent for Governor Taylor.

Peck ran for mayor in the Spring of 1890. With a majority of 6500 votes he won easily.

He resigned on November 11, 1890 to become the Governor of Wisconsin.

The Peck name had been a well known one in Milwaukee in the 1880's thanks to his newspaper's popularity. Even before the mayoral election of April, 1890 Peck had been a critic of the ideas behind the Bennett law which had been passed by the state legislature in 1889. This law had been promulgated by William Dempster Hoard who had been elected governor the year before . The key component of the bill required all schools that were recognized by the state of Wisconsin to teach the major subjects in English. This caused an uproar in those parochial schools that taught in German. This was profoundly opposed in Milwaukee, a city with a large German American population, many of whom were foreign born.

In addition to his opposition to the Bennett law, he was a vocal proponent for having Milwaukee be the site of the Grand Army Encampment in 1889. This event would bring a large sum of money into the city coffers by way of tourist dollars. His success with this in addition to his support for the repeal of the Bennett Law was crucial in securing the mayoral nomination for Peck in 1890.

The anti-Bennett Law contingent found a proponent in Mayor Peck and pushed through his nomination for Governor as the democratic candidate in August, 1891. A major plank of the democrats noted "The underlying principle of the Bennett Law is needless interference with parental rights and liberty of conscience..." He beat Governor Hoard by 28,000 votes garnering a total of 160,000. While governor in 1891 the Bennett Law was repealed.

He won a second term which ran from January 1893 to January 1895. He defeated John Spooner by less than 8000 votes out of the 348,000 cast. He lost to William Upham, a one term governor in 1895. His fate was similar to most Democratic candidates during that year's elections. He remained active in politics for awhile at least being elected Chairman of the State Central Committee by the Democrats in May, 1896.

A key accomplishment of his administration was the recovery of funds from previous state treasurers*. He instituted "Treasury Suits" against several former state treasurers to recover funds. It had been a common practice for the state treasurers to supplement their income with the interest from bank accounts which held state treasury money. Apparently the methodology was simple. "If there was a surplus above the daily needs of the state, it would be deposited in an interest bearing account. (Quite a change from nowadays-huh). At the end of the quarter a draft of the interest from these accounta would would be sent to treasurer in his or her name. The state prevailed in their lawsuits against the various treasurers.

* Wisconsin in Three Centuries by Henry Colin Campbell

A return effort as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee was a failure in 1905 when he lost to Robert M. LaFollette by 50,000 votes.

After leaving public office Peck campaigned to make cheese the national emblem. He asked, "What has the eagle ever done for America?"

And finally

After several years out of public service, in 1899 he reestablished Peck's Weekly Sun. He again took out office space in the Evening Wisconsin Building. This venture turned out to be short lived as he shuttered the paper on April 8, 1900. Peck stated "the cheapness and completeness of the modern daily newspaper and the low price of magazines have left no place for the weekly newspaper".

He continued to write books with Peck's Bad Boy in an Airship, Peck's Boy Boy Abroad, Peck's Bad Boy with the Cowboys and Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus being published in the twentieth century.

He also dabbled in real estate and business. In 1901 he was the President of the San Pedro Rubber Plantation Company of Milwaukee. This company which was incorporated in October, 1900 proposed to develop land in Mexico to produce rubber. In 1911 he became treasurer of a newly incorporated insurance company, Independence Life of America.

Peck was a life long Mason affiliated with Wisconsin Lodge No. 13.

He lived with his family in Milwaukee first at 1629 Prospect Avenue. In 1883 he resided a block over at 190 North Farwell Avenue (renumbered later to 1620-1629) in a rowhouse which he built.
Prospect Avenue

He died from Bright's disease on April 16, 1916.

The house below is where Peck lived in Milwaukee.