19th Century Dust jackets-Donohue Henneberry

Most all juvenile books in the late 19th century either came in boxes or had dust jackets. The all too frequent bookseller ads which state: dust jacket-none as issued are generally nonsense.

What most of the jackets have in common is that they are relatively colorless having black writing/pictures which match the underlying cover on brown jacket paper.

Here is a very nice dust jacket that does not follow that rule. This book which was published in 1891 by Donohue, Henneberry and Company of Chicago has a dust jacket in color. As can be seen, it does match cover but has red and black coloring. The 1891 date is on the title page.




This book is #2 in the two volume All Aboard Series written by Edward Rand. This series was published by 8 different publishers between 1881 and the early part of the 20th century. Edward Rand was the author at least 10 series.

This series will be discussed in a future blog entry

Cupples and Leon Earliest Juvenile Series

Cupples and Leon was an active book publisher from 1902-1956. Although best known for their juvenile series, they also published numerous hard cover comics with Little Orphan Annie being the most popular. In total this firm sold more than 30 million comic strip books.

The company was founded by Victor Cupples and Arthur T. Leon. Early on Cupples worked for Houghton, Miflin as well as the Lothrop Publishing Company. He also helped found Cupples, Upham and Company . Arthur Leon had worked at Laird and Lee. Their partnership was very successful. With the founding partners retirements and subsequent deaths the company was eventually sold to Platt and Munk. This occurred in 1956.


The earliest Cupples and Leon juvenile series were published in 1906. The eight books published at that time have an interesting characteristic that other Cupples and Leon juvenile series books do not have. The classic Cupples and Leon logo is a circle surrounding the publisher's name at the base of the spine. In these 1906 books there is no circle. The sans circle books are among the most difficult to find Cupples and Leon books-especially with dust jackets.

Of the 8 books the Horatio Alger first edition of Joe, The Hotel Boy is clearly the most sought after especially if it has a dust jacket. The others though are quite uncommon and serious series book collectors are always looking out for them.




The eight titles are:
The Motor Boys- Clarence Young
The Motor Boys Overland-Clarence Young
The Motor Boys in Mexico- Clarence Young
The Young Express Agent-Allen Chapman
Two Boy Publishers- Allen Chapman
Four Boy Hunters- Captain Ralph Bonehill
Joe, The Hotel Boy- Horatio Alger
Through the Air to the North Pole- Roy Rockwood

Some examples are shown here.

Wayne Whipple, the Patriot Series and the Peace Flag

Wayne Whipple (1856-1942) was the author of three juvenile series as well as three series not for juveniles and 10 non series books. http://waynewhipple.com/index.html

He served as an editor with D. Lothrop Company and several newspapers including the Kansas City Mail.

Although mostly known for his literary work, his design of the Whipple Flag is quite interesting. In 1912 he submitted an entry to a nationwide contest The contest was to find the flag that most represented American history. Whipple submitted a flag which he named the Whipple Peace Flag. It was in tribute to the global peace movement which preceded World War I. Of the more than 500 flags submitted, Whipple's won.

The design of Whipple's flag reveals a centrally located six pointed 13 star group representing the 13 original colonies surrounded by a large circle made up of the remaining 35 stars. The stripes are similar to other American flags.




Although it was a contest winner, it never caught on. It is just a blip on the memory screen today. It can however still be seen on one of Whipple's book covers. In the three volume Patriotic Series published by Henry Altemus Company
(http://henryaltemus.com/series/series139.htm) the first book "The Story of the American Flag" was first published in 1910. The first edition of this book has a picture of the American flag on it. The later editions of this title have a picture of the Whipple Peace Flag.


For more information on the flag see:
http://www.whipple.org/blaine/whippleflag.html

Edwin Houston and the North Pole Series

Edwin J. Houston (1847-1914) was the author of four juvenile series. His life's work was mainly as an educator. He was a high school teacher as well as an electrical inventor being one of the founders of Thomson-Houston Electric Company. In 1892 his Company merged with the Edison Electric Company to form General Electric. In addition to the juvenile series, he wrote numerous books in the 1890's and early 1900's about electricity In fact he penned more than 100 books in total. Because of his contributions to the field of electricity he was awarded an honorary PH.D. by Princeton University.
He was the chief electrician at the World's Fair in Chicago and twice was elected the President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Most of the books of his juvenile series' books are tough to find with or without dust jackets.

The series in discussion today is the North Pole Series published by the John C. Winston Company. Generally speaking most series book collectors really do not think of Winston as a major publisher. In fact, In the Mattson guide there are only 8 Winston Series. Winston was much more popular with juvenile readers with the various reprint series. This included the Roundabout Series (reprinted from the Henry Coates Series of the same name), Reprinted Edward Ellis Series, Alger Series, Castlemon Series and many others.



The three books of the North Pole Series were published in 1907 and sold individually as well as in a boxed set. It is doubtful they were reprinted. The covers are book appropriate to the stories within. All three books track the Henderson-Kransen North Polar Expedition. The intent of these books is to educate as well as provide interesting adventures. Each book has several glossy prints illustrated by Louis Dougherty.

As noted above they came in a boxed set at $3.00 and individually at $1.00. They all initially had dust jackets.







1. The Search for the North Pole
2. The Discovery of the North Pole
3. Cast Away at the North Pole

Henty First Edition by Blackie with Dust Jacket

George Henty wrote 122 books as described by his bibliographer Peter Newbolt in G.H. Henty 1832-1902, A Bibliographical Study, Scolar Press 1996. A number of British publishers did the first editions but Blackie did more firsts and reprints than any other. Most of the American first editions were published by Scribner's and Scribner and Welford.


Who was George Henty? A sickly child born in Trumpington, England, he later served with the British services in various sites including the Suez canal, Franco-German Campaign, Turko-Serbian War. After his service ended he wrote numerous boys' adventure books many of which were based on his own experiences.

Blackie first editions are of variable scarcity. Blackie first editions with dust jackets are quite rare. Here is an example. The Tiger of Mysore was published in late 1895. It was the custom of Blackie to put the next year' s date at the base of the title page. (See Newbolt). More on Henty 's books in future posts.

Rollo Travels by Jacob Abbott-First Editions

(For a complete updated review of this series and its publishers-see:
http://www.henryaltemus.com/Rollo/index.html)
Jacob Abbott (1803-1879) was a minister and author of great note in the mid 19th century. Although he was a life long Congregational minister and teacher, his accomplishments as a writer are the main focus of this and follow-up entries about Abbott.

Abbott is most well known for the Rollo books. These didactic little books were vehicles to teach morality to youngsters. Of the several series that Rollo either starred in or was a supplemental character, the most popular was the 10 book Rollo's Tour of Europe Series. In these tales Rollo and Mr. George toured Europe learning more about character and morality than the individual lands visited.



These books were initially published between 1853 and 1858. Thereafter up until the early 1900's they were reprinted by at least 30 publishers in at least 50 formats.

Later printings are frequently misidentified as first editions. The reality is that the first six books were initially published by W.J. Reynolds of Boston and volumes 7-10 were first published by Reynolds' successor, Brown, Taggard and Chase. Both of these companies used the same maroon cloth cover and the same boat title page.

Brown, Taggard and Chase (BT and C) also reprinted volumes 1-6 when they took over from Reynolds-thus publishing the second editions of those volumes. Later in 1861-1862 Brown and Taggard succeeded BT and C and reprinted the whole series.

The early history of printings is relatively simple to follow as Fred'k A. Brown succeeded Brown and Taggard in 1862 and Taggard and Thompson followed in 1863. Both published the entire series. Thereafter the myriad of reprints from various publishers began. Because a number of these later publishers used the same title page with the picture of the sailboat, it can be hard to discern the dates of later printings. This will be discussed in a future blog entry.


The Series:
Rollo
1. On the Atlantic 1853
2. In Paris 1854
3. In Switzerland 1854
4. In London 1855
5. On the Rhine 1855
6. In Scotland 1856
7. In Geneva 1857
8. In Holland 1857
9. In Naples 1858
10. In Rome 1858

Daniel Lothrop and His Publishing House- Part 2

His business continued to expand as he moved into the Franklin and Hawley location. New magazines such as The Boston Book Bulletin, Our Little Men and Women, Chatauqua Young Folk's Journal were started.

During the late 1870's and 1880's popular books such as the Family Flight Series by Everett Hale, the Five Little Peppers' books by Margaret Sidney and more Pansy books by his wife Harriet Lothrop were unbelievably huge sellers.

Even with the new space Lothrop was running out of room with all of his expanded publishing. Per the Bay State Monthly December, 1884, the four story building was still too small. As it was described-the First floor was the salesroom, second floor was for most of the editorial offices, 3rd floor was the mailing room and the fourth floor the bindery. Another building on Purchase Street was leased for storage and manufacturing.

Lothrop brought in new partners in 1887 and by 1892 had a booklist of 2000 titles which was among the largest in the United States. In 1892 Daniel Lothrop died and for three years his wife Harriet Lothrop (Pansy) ran the company. Finally in 1904 with the company's finances in the dismal straights of bankruptcy, Lee and Shepard bought out the assets and started the newly formed Lothrop, Lee and Shepard.

Dating the Lothrop books is relatively easy. During its history it had three different names and several address changes.
By looking at the imprint on the title page and using the information below , it should be essy to come up with a reasonable approximation of the date a book was published.



The Names:
1. D. Lothrop & Company (1868-1887)
2. D. Lothrop Company (1887-1895)
3. Lothrop Publishing Company (1895-1904)

The Addresses:
1. 38-40 Cornhill (1868-1875)
2. Franklin and Hawley Street (1875-1887)
3. Washington St. opposite Bromfield (1887-1895)

Also G.T. Day was on the early title pages of some books between 1869-1875.

So with these few helps, the first book was published between 1875-1887









This book was published in 1887.













This book was published between 1895-1904.

Daniel Lothrop and and His Publishing House-Part 1

Dating 19th century books can be tricky at times. There are plenty of simple guidelines however to make it a bit easier. Previously it has been noted that Lee and Shepard and the D. Lothrop Publishing Company became Lothrop Lee and Shepard in 1905.

Here is an introduction into Daniel Lothrop's Publishing House. Tomorrow I will give you some dating parameters for Lothrop books.

Lothrop opened his book store and publishing house at 38 and 40 Cornhill in Boston in 1868. His first book was Andy Lutrell which was a big seller and made it easier for him to reach out to other authors. His book list over the life of his house consisted of a great variety of material but children's/juvenile books were most prominent. In fact, there is no other late 19th century publisher who came close to printing as many juvenile series as Lothrop did.


In the early 1870's he offered large financial incentives ($1000/$500) for manuscripts which eventually found their way into his $1000/$500 Series. He was known as being willing to spend for quality work. Lothrop House big sellers were the Pansy books, Miss Yonge's Histories, and various "art gift books". His house published several magazines for children starting in the mid 1870's including Pansy, Babyland and Wide Awake.

By 1875 because he had outgrown his Cornhill shop he moved to larger quarters on Franklin and Hawley Streets.


Here are pictures of the exterior and interior of the Franklin and Hawley Streets location.

Appleton Book Contest Flyer in 1912

Nowadays I always check through the books I buy thinking I might find a nice advertising flyer or other book ephemera. Usually I come up with nothing or a pressed leaf. Although the likelihood is zero, I am still waiting to find that mint Honus Wagner baseball card. Today while reshelving some books I did find a nice bit of ephemera.

Bucking the Line was written by William Heyliger and published by D. Appleton and Company first in 1912.
Appleton was publishing numerous sports books in this era by Heyliger and the very prolific Ralph Henry Barbour. Barbour was concentrating more on his sports' books by this time than his romance novels. But Appleton was a big time publisher and although their print runs of juvenile books may not have been large, they had an impressive list of publications nevertheless.

Inside the Heyliger book I found a flyer announcing a "Prize Contest for Boys". The contest required the reader to write an opinion of Heyliger's football book. The best opinions would win any one of a number of different Appleton books.

Most of the books were sports' books but there was an historical fiction book by Hezekiah Butterworth and an adventure book by Joseph Altsheler.

Certainly the winner who received 10 books got a nice prize.

Tom Swift -Earliest Dust jackets

Clearly the Tom Swift Series was one of the most popular juvenile series ever published. Along with the Rover Boys, Grosset and Dunlap had two giant sellers in the early days of the twentieth century.

The first 5 books in the Tom Swift Series were published in 1910 as a "breeder set". Another five came in 1911 and yet another five in 1912. Thereafter one new book was published per year until in 1935 when volume #38 Tom Swift and His Planet Stone was published.



The familiar quadrant cover was used until it was replaced with a blind stamped orange cloth cover in 1932/1933 during the early print run of "the Giant Magnet". There were three basic dust jacket formats. Quadrant, duotoneand full color. Today I am going to address the quadrant dust jackets.

As with most all series books the earliest formats had dust jackets which matched the cover of the book. The Tom Swift Series was no exception to this rule.


In the first year of production books #1-5 had the earliest dust jacket. red line drawn on a brownish background without any other colors. The dust jacket reverse only listed the first five titles-indicating its 1910 publication. This jacket was used for one year

The second dust jacket lists 10 titles on the reverse (indicating a 1911 date). It has dark green coloration in addition to the red on a brown paper dust jacket.



The third and final quadrant dust jacket is the same as the second only on a white paper dust jacket. This one lists anywhere from 15 titles (1912 book) to 20 titles (1917 book). After this quadrant dust jacket ran its course, the duotones were put into production.

The rarest Tom Swift dust jacketed book can be argued about. Some say it is the First format quadrant cloth Giant Magnet. Other say it is not a jacketed book at all but the Keds paperback reprints (see a future blog entry), in my mind it is a 1910 dust jacketed book.

Francis Rolt-Wheeler and the George Doran Series

Rolt-Wheeler wrote two juvenile series that were published by George H. Doran Company.

George Doran was born in Toronto in 1869. After working at the Evangelical publisher Toronto Willard Tract Depository, in 1892 he moved to Chicago to work for the publisher Fleming Revell. He was with Revell until 1907 and in 1908 began his own publishing house George H. Doran. Initially located in Toronto and subsequently also in New York, his list gradually grew. He was quite successful and he eventually merged with Doubleday , Page and Company (1927) becoming Doubleday, Doran and Company. This merger made the new company the largest publishing house in the English speaking world.(American Literary Publishing Houses, Edited by Peter Dzwonkoski, Gale Research Company 1986)




The Romance-History of America is a 4 volume series. These books, which have numerous glossy illustrations and maps, trace the history of America from the earliest days of prehistoric times to the end of the 17th century. Although not rare, the books in dust jacket are still good finds.

1. In the Days Before Columbus 1921
2. The Quest of the Western World 1921
3. The Coming of the Peoples 1922
4. Colonial Ways and Wars 1925

The dust jackets have pictorial multicolored book appropriate pictures which are also the frontispieces.



The other series published by Doran is the 5 volume Round the World with the Boy Journalists series. Interestingly some of the book covers from this series were also used in the other Doran series. There does not seem to be a patten and subsequent printings may have used randomly placed book covers.

This series follows the adventures of a different boy in each book in various exotic locales.







1. Plotting in the Pirate Seas 1921
2. Hunting Hidden Treasure in the Andes 1921
3. Heroes of the Ruins 1922
4. A Toreador of Spain 1923
5. Magic-Makers of Morocco 1924

These books only have glossy frontispieces which are also used as the picture on the dust jacket. As with the other Doran series, the books are not rare but getting all five in dust jackets is still somewhat difficult.


I have included a representative sampling of dust jacket pictures here. If you wish to see any or all of the others, let me know.

The Bobbsey Twins and their Earliest reprints

Although the Mershon and Chatterton-Peck publications of the Bobsey Twins are the first editions and the most sought after formats of these books, one can argue that the first Grosset formats of books #1-3 are equally scarce. The key to the first Groset and Dunlap editions is finding the books with their original dust jackets. I would claim that the earliest jacketed Bobbsey's by Grosset and Dunlap are actually harder to find than the Mershon's and Chatterton-Peck"s.

The first Grosset and Dunlap( Groset's) do not have the familiar picture of the twins on the jacket. Rather it has text extolling the virtues of the books. The cover does have an applique of the two children sitting in the flowers.Thus far I have found two variant dust jackets with the text. Both predate the pictorial jackets.

The earlier book lists the Rover Boys to Treasure Isle on the reverse of the jacket. That book was probably published in 1909. The author's name (Hope) is just under the title on the spine.
There are some interesting differences in these books that have the same dust jackets. I have seen three different back ad combinations. One I have seen has no back ads. Another lists Rover Boys to book #12 (Rover Boys at Farm) which is a 1908 book. A third copy lists the 8 Enterprise Series books that are also listed on the front flap of the dust jacket. It is impossible at this time to claim that one of these format variants is earlier or later than another.


The second Bobbsey Twins' book that has the text on the dust jacket has a different set of ads on the reverse of the dust jacket. 10 Tom Swift's are listed indicating a 1911 date. There are other ad differences but this is the main one.




After the books just described it is assumed that Grosset moved to the familiar pictorial dust jacket. This occurred by 1912 as books of this ilk have been seen with 15 Tom Swift's advertised on the back of the dust jacket. At this time the author's name was placed in the center of the spine.


These early Grosset and Dunlap reprints of The Bobbsey Twins exemplify the importance of needing the dust jackets of series books to be able to distinguish editions, formats and accurately determine dates.

The Bobbsey Twins First Editions

The Bobbsey Twins series was one of the most popular 20th century series of books for small children.

The first book, The Bobbsey Twins, was published in 1904 by The Mershon Company. Unfortunately the later edition Grosset and Dunlap books are frequently described as being first editions as opposed to later publications. (Actually afterMershon published this title, Chatterton-Peck also printed it).



Mershon Edition



Here are a couple of description errors by sellers .

1.1904 THE BOBBSEY TWINS LAURA LEE HOPE Mershon CO.1ST ED
IT WAS WRITTEN BY LAURA LEE HOPE AND PUBLISHED BY GROSSET & DUNLOP IN NEW YORK IT WAS COPYRIGHTED IN 1904 BY THE MERSHON COMPANY

2. The Bobbsey Twins
Laura Lee Hope
Price: US$ 195.00
Book Description: Grosset & Dunlap. Decorative Cloth. Book Condition: Good. Assumed to be the first edition.




Chatterton-Peck Editions



The second and third volumes in the series were first published by Chatterton-Peck Company
2. The Bobbsey Twins in the Country 1907
3. The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore 1907 (Some dispute whether this book was a Chatterton-Peck publication but the earliest Grosset and Dunlap edition of "Seashore" does credit Chatterton-Peck with the copyright.)

Also the first book The Bobbsey Twins was reprinted by Chatterton-Peck (second edition).

These Mershon and Chatterton-Peck Bobbsey Twins' books are very scarce. The cover used in these books was different from the Grosset and Dunlap covers published first in 1908. The earlier books are also smaller. (6.75 x 4.75 versus 7.62 x 5.25)

Copies of these titles were reprinted for many years by Grosset and Dunlap. Only the earliest reprints with dust jackets have more than nominal value.

The earliest Grosset and Dunlap editions which are extremely scarce in dust jacket will be discussed tomorrow.

Francis Rolt-Wheeler and the Boys of Long Ago Series

As noted yesterday, Francis Rolt-Wheeler was the author of six juvenile series. Three were published by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard- The U.S. Service Series (20 volumes), the Museum Series (9 volumes), and the Wonder of War Series (4 volumes). Two series were published By George Doran- Round the World with the Boy Journalists ( 5 volumes) and a three volume series published by Appleton. Although the latter series has no formal name , the books are referred to as telling stories of "Boys of Long Ago". Thus I have taken the liberty of calling this series-The Boys of Long Ago Series.






In regard to completion of these series in dust jackets, the U.S. Service Series is probably the easiest but because it has by far the most books can be somewhat expensive and time consuming. Of the Lothrop Lee and Shepard series, I think the Museum Series and the Wonder of War Series are at about the same degree of difficulty.



The books of the two George Doran published series are tougher to find than the Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Series. They must have had lower print runs. Certainly George Doran is not a household name in the homes of juvenile series collectors.
In fact the only other other that Mattson lists published by Doran is the two volume -Boys at the Front in the Great War Series by Captain Allan Grant. This latter series was published in 1915. Books from this series are among the rarest of all series books.

Probably the most difficult of the 6 series to complete in dust jackets is the Appleton series- Boys of Long Ago. Although the print runs of these books seem to be more than many of the Appleton series books of this era, finding these volumes in dust jackets is still difficult. The only copies I have seen have all had the number 1 in parentheses on the last page of text which indicates a first printing. I have not seen a later printing for any of the books. Thus , their rarity may be indicative of being part of only one print run.





The three books:
1. The Finder of Fire 1927
2. The Tamer of Herds 1928
3. The Pyramid Builder 1929

Each book documents the adventures of a boy in 1. cave man days, 2. 8000 years ago in ancient Chaldea and 3. Early Egypt.

The dust jackets as are pictured here have book appropriate multi colored pictorial pictures. The book cover has the title and author as well as a small picture which is relevant to the book.

Francis Rolt-Wheeler , Overview and Advertising Piece

Francis Rolt Wheeler( 1876-1960) was the author of six juvenile series as well as a number of non series juvenile and adult books. He was born in London.

He entered the United States in 1893 and during the next several years worked in the newspaper business as an editor at the Winnipeg Daily Telegram, Daily Plain Dealer in Grand Forks, South Dakota, Minneapolis Tribune and Chicago Daily Chronicle.


He graduated from the Western Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1903.
Subsequently he wrote and lectured.

His marriage of a number of years rapidly deteriorated when his wife swore out affidavits in July, 1915 suing him for a marital separation on the grounds of cruelty, failing to support her and abandonment. She claimed that he tried to induce her to kill herself, wrote love letters to another woman and failed to pay for her support of $7 per week as ordered by the court.




After the formal divorce, he continued to write and in 1922 moved to Tunis. Later he went to Nice where he spent the rest of his life. From the 1930's on his writings included books on mystical ideas and he edited journals on astrology. Although have some of these journals, since they are in French, I cannot begin to determine whether he was somewhat "off" in those years. His last juvenile series books were completed in 1929.

(References include the New York Times July 17, 1915, Dime Novel Round-Up-Rolt Wheeler-Dizer March 15, 1974, Who's Who in America)

This entry pictures a non series adult drama, Nimrod, published in 1912 by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard. The interesting item here is the advertising sheet.
This flyer gives a summary of the book and is on heavy duty paper.

Juvenile series information on Francis Rolt-Wheeler will follow in the next several days.