Daniel Eddy-Morrill Higgins book

As noted earlier Morrill, Higgins and Company published both Young Folks' Travels books in 1892. Here is a picture of the cover of that book. As you can see, the cover still has the Belford, Clarke and Company imprint.

Daniel Eddy's Rip Van Winkle's Travels Series

Here is the first Crowell edition.


Daniel Eddy wrote a two book series initially using the pseudonym Rupert Van Wert. The books were published by seven different publishers beginning with Thomas Y. Crowell and ending with M.A. Donohue.

Let me review the publishing history because a fairly interesting pattern can be seen. With the exception of the Crowell and the C.E. Brown published books, the other five publishers make up a pattern that is frequently noted.







Belford, Clarke & Company ,which published these books after Crowell, went out of business in 1890. At that time Donohue, Henneberry (1890-1891) used the plates to publish their own copies. Morrill, Higgins which was in business only in 1892-1893 did a version. Later Donohue Brothers and M.A. Donohue published the series. This is the same pattern of publishing that is seen in the various Peck's Bad Boy books by George W. Peck as well as a number of other books/series.






Here is another early Thomas Crowell copy.


Crowell published the two books first. Master Van Wert takes his students on amazing travels throughout the world. The pseudonym of Rupert Van Wert is used by Eddy here

1. Rip Van Winkle's Travels in Foreign Lands 1881
2. Rip Van Winkle's Travels in Asia and Africa 1882







The second publisher was Belford, Clarke and Company. Here is an illuminated board cover book with a cloth cover below.



The first Crowell editions were published in both cloth at $2.25 and illuminated board covers at $1.75. Variably the Foreign Lands' book was titled "in Europe". Eddy's name does not appear within these books.

Belford, Clarke and Company thereafter published the two book series a number of times including in 1884,1885, 1888, 1889, and 1890. The pseudonym was used again.
The 1884-1885 versions by Belford, Clarke were titled:
1. Van Wert's Travels in Foreign Lands
2. Van Wert''s Travels in Asia and Africa





By 1888 the format had changed to a larger thinner book. The earlier Belford books are 8.5 x 6.75 whereas the later books are 10 x 8. Also the name had now changed from Rip Van Winkle's Travels to:
Young Folks Travels in Europe
Young Folks Travels in Asia and Africa
No author is given in these books. The illuminated board covers change from year to year.













Here are three illuminated board cover books from Belford, Clarke and Company. Notice the different covers.

















Morrill, Higgins and Company did a reprint of this edition in 1892.

Later in the 1890's, the titles were changed again. They became:
1. All Aboard for Europe
2. All Aboard for Asia and Africa.
These books were published by Donohue, Henneberry, Donohue Brothers, and M.A.Donohue. They were combined with the two book All Aboard Series written by Edward A. Rand to make up a four book All Aboard Series. The cover formats were changed on the Eddy books to conform to the Rand books. The Eddy books now listed him as an author.

Finally, Charles E. Brown published the two books in their own series called Eddy's Travels. This series was published in 1893. The books were titled:
1. Eddy's Travels in Europe
2. Eddy's Travels in Asia and Africa

The books regardless of the publisher have the same content. Numerous illustrations taken from other sources are parts of these stories.




















Note that here are the All Aboard books published by the Donohue family.

Outrageous Ebay Book Listings

Like many book collectors I search the auctions on Ebay for items within my area of interest. I especially check the Henry Altemus listings. It is troubling of course that at least 40% of the listings have significant errors regarding date, edition, or something else. (My study of Altemus Ebay titles) Occasionally items are priced to start at unreasonable amounts. I thought from time to time I would point some of those listings on this site. I think I will designate them-Outrageous Ebay.

Here is one of the really bizarre ones. This seller has listed an Alice in Wonderland for a Buy It Now at $500 or Make an offer. This book is a 1907 late Henry Altemus Company reprint.
(http://henryaltemus.com/series/series143.htm)
Fairly common. It does not have the original box. My price would be maybe $10 on a very good day.

I think some sellers feel that since the title is very well known that the book must have value. Altemus published this title in hundreds of different formats and only a handful of them have any significant collector's interest.

After seeing this book I thought I would look at what else this seller had on his/her list. It was then that I saw a real eye opener (or eye closer). He has an ad for Helen's Babies by John Habberton at a Buy it Now for $850. (That's dollars not Rupees)

Helen's Babies is a Peter Parley to Penrod book published by Loring in 1876. This is a book I do not know much about but there are a number of Loring copies advertised as first editions on book search services from $25-125.

So you might be thinking he is only trying to get 8-10 times the going price. Not so quickly book collector. His book is not a Loring book. His book was published by The World Publishing Compnay. I have a few World Publishing books. They are in the garage. World was a publisher of mainly cheap reprints. From 1929-1940 it was known as the World Syndicate Trading Company. From 1940-1974 it was the World Publishing Company. So this Ebay book is a late reprint without a jacket. I am not an expert on pricing but this book cannot possibly have any dollar value at all.

Hurry-These books will not last forever. Well, maybe they will.

Daniel C. Eddy and Juvenile Series

Daniel C. Eddy (1823-1896) wrote a number of juvenile series in the 19th century. I have six listed in my juvenile bibliography but in fairness several are reprints of his earlier series such that there really are only three different series

As is frequently the story with 19th century juvenile authors, Eddy was a man of the cloth. He graduated in 1845 from the Hampton Theological Institute in New Hampshire. As a Baptist minister he served a number of churches throughout the East. His work began in the Boston area. In 1861 he was moved to Philadelphia. Later he served in Fall River, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, New York.

While in Massachusetts in 1854 he was elected to the state house of representatives where he acted as Speaker of the House. He was a member of the Know Nothing Party. (One of my personal political party favorites)

He frequently spoke out about the evils of alcohol. In 1889 he was elected as a manager in the National Temperance Society.

Although he authored a number of religious and moralistic works, my main interest with Eddy will be his juvenile series. He had traveled overseas in Europe in 1850 and in Turkey and the Holy Land in 1861. These adventures served him well while writing his juvenile books since his series were all travelogue in type.




They are:
1. The Percy Family
2. Walter's Tour in the East (A continuation of the Percy family adventures)
3. Our Traveling Party (Reprints of the Percy family Books)
4. Rip Van Winkle's Travels (pseudonym of Rupert Van Wert)
5. Young Folk's Travels (Reprints of Rip Van Winkle's Travels)
6. Eddy's Travels (Reprints of Rip Van Winkle's Travels)

Some book covers are shown here. The actual series will be discussed in future blogs.


Here is the cover used by all three publishers of the Our Traveling Party.

Butler Brothers Published Dust Jacketed Book

As noted yesterday, sometimes companies which are not primarily book publishers still print books/series of interest.

Butler Brothers was a giant merchandising house. The house was founded in 1877 by Edward and George with Charles joining his two brothers shortly after. Butler brothers made their mark by supplying retail merchants with items for the "five cent counter". Their other innovation was that instead of having traveling salesmen promoting their goods they sent out product catalogues. At one time it was thought to be the largest supply house in the world. Butler Brothers formally incorporated in 1887. Main offices/warehouses were in New York, Chicago and St. Louis.



















In the 1880's Butler Bros. advertised "a complete library" which they would sell for $14.00. Sold only to merchants (presumably for resale) this set of 30 books came with a "polished maple book rack".

The books consisted of reprints of classic fiction by authors such as Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hughes and others. (See ad).

Butler Brothers published few books so the book pictured here Life of Daniel Webster with the dust jacket is an unusual find. I have seen another book from this series dated 1887. Because the title page of neither book says "corporation" , this series was probably published in 1887 or earlier.



Here is a picture of one of the founding brothers, Edward Butler.

The original warehouse in Chicago is shown here.

Dickens' Boxed Set Published by Rust Craft Shop

Fred Rust opened his Book and Craft Shop in Kansas City in 1906. Along with his brother Donald (mining engineer by vocation) they produced various greetings cards, blotters, calendars and the like.

The Rusts' moved to Boston from Kansas City in 1913 opening the Rust Craft Company. Mainly in the greeting card business, this greeting card company evolved into one of the largest in the United States. After the move to Boston it produced greeting cards, puzzles, book marks, books, postcards, book plates, etc. I have even seen fruit jar labels by this company.






































The Rust Craft Greeting Cards Inc. Company was purchased by Ziff Davis in 1979. The price which included the six television stations Russ Craft owned, was $89 million dollars. Of course the Rust family had long since sold out.

Rust Craft published only a few books but here is an interesting boxed set they did. It consists of 5 Christmas books by Dickens:
A Christmas Carol
The Cricket on the Hearth
The Haunted Man
The Chimes
The Battle of Life

All five of these softcover books have the same picture on the cover. These little books are 5.5 x 3.0 with illustrated end papers. Each book has one tipped in color illustration by Munro S. Orr.

Although I am not certain, this series of books was probably published between 1915-1930.

The box at each end has a paste on label. Both are shown here. One label has a short poem about the books and identifies them. The other label is an advertisement for Daniel Low and Company-jewelers in Salem, Massachusetts. Of interest is that it appears that the Daniel Low Company was responsible for the ever popular souvenir spoon industry. See: http://www.sterlingflatwarefashions.com/SouvenirFlatware.html

This boxed set is an example of a nice set not done by a company thought of as a book publisher.
Clearly scarce but probably not really valuable

Ned Brewster Series by Chauncey Hawkins

Old storied publishing houses did not specialize in juvenile series in the early 20th century. Of course, the bread and butter of these firms were adult fiction and non fiction. But there were series done. Little , Brown was an old venerable house founded in 1837 by Charles C. Little and James Brown.

Its series books included those written by Mary Wells Smith, George Atwater, Roy Snell and a number of others. In Mattson there are 24 series listed. These series are a bit harder to come by. I suspect because the quality of the binding was better than the average series book and subsequently the price was higher (generally more than $1.00) the print runs must have been relatively small. This is especially true for series authored by unknown writers.

Today's series is the three volume Ned Brewster seres written by Chauncey Hawkins. The books (as with all of the series books published by Little, Brown) came with dust jackets. The stories are about big game hunting with guns and cameras. The illustrations are from photographs taken by the author.

Chauncey Hawkins (1887 -1930) was a pastor as well as an author. He was from Vaccaville, California. He served at various churches throughout Massachusetts, Seattle and San Francisco. He wrote several religiously oriented books in addition to the three Ned Brewster volumes. Hawkins may not have been playing with a full deck. While living in Boston he owned a bear cub named Blitzen that wheeled the carriage of his four year old son son.

When he died it was not a wild animal that got him but rather just a mundane auto accident outside Visalia, California.

1. Ned Brewster's Year in the Big Woods 1912
2. Ned Brewster's Bear Hunt 1913
3. Ned Brewster's Caribou Hunt 1914

Estes and Lauriat Advertising Cover

Here is an excellent advertising cover. On the left of this long envelope is a picture of the Estes and Lauriat building in Boston. This 299-301 address refers to its address on Washington Street in Boston where it was situated between 1876 and 1898.

In 1898 Dana Estes and Company succeeded this firm.

Estes and Lauriat published quite a number of fairly well known series including the Zigzag Series by Butterworth, the Knockabout Series by Frederick Ober and the Three Vassar Girls Series among others. As time goes by I will review their various series.

Children's Lives of Great Men by Elbridge Brooks

As discussed yesterday, Elbridge Brooks wrote a number of 19th century juvenile series. One of the more popular was the 6 volume Children's Lives of Great Men. This series was also called the True Story Series.

These books are oversized (9.5 x 7.5) beautifully illustrated with covers of various colors which have book appropriate illustrations and embossed shields highlighting the main character of the book.








The six books are:

1. The Story of Christopher Columbus 1892
2. The Story of George Washington 1895
3. The Story of Abraham Lincoln 1896
4. The Story of U.S. Grant 1897
5. The Story of Benjamin Franklin 1898
6. The Story of Lafayette 1899





















Books #1 and 2 were initially published by D. Lothrop Company. Thereafter all six books were published by Lothrop Publishing Company. Later all the books were reprinted by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard. All the volumes originally came jacketed.
The later Lothrop, Lee and Shepard (after 1905) books have the same cover with less colors.

The Story of Christopher Columbus was revised as a Lothrop, Lee and Shepard book. A seventh title- The True Story of the United States of America (1891 D. Lothrop Company) is occasionally considered a companion volume to this series











Above you can see the difference between the later Lothrop, Lee and Shepard books and the
earlier Lothrop Publishing Company book. The blue Lafayette book which is somewhat plain is the later book while the green Lafayette book is the earlier one. The Lafayette jacket is on the later book.

Elbridge Brooks Advertising Flyer

Elbridge Brooks ( 1846-1902) wrote authored seven 19th century juvenile series.
Seen here is a nice two page advertising pamphlet that features his books. This piece was printed by the Lothrop Publishing Company in 1899. Most of his works appear to be historical or biographical in nature.

A brief biography from Wikipedia indicates that he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He worked for various publishers and magazines including D. Appleton and Company, Publishers' Weekly and the Youth's Companion. During his latter years from 1887 to 1902 he worked as an editor at D. Lothrop Company. He was an editor for Lothrop's Wide Awake, a magazine previously mentioned in this blog.

Most but not all of his series were done for Lothrop. These included:
Children's Lives of Great Men
The Brooks' Stories
Story of the States Series

His various series will be highlighted in future blogs.

Frank Merriwell Series by Federal Publishing Company

In an August 4, 2009 posting I discussed the Street and Smith Frank Merriwell hard cover books. The second publisher to print the hardcover Merriwell's was the Federal Book Company. As was noted before, Federal was the successor to F.M. Lupton Publishing Company and was active between 1902 and 1904.

The Federal Frank Merriwell's are very difficult to find. Although they initially had dust jackets, I have never seen one. There are two different formats that I have seen. I am unable to prioritize them. Both of the bindings have Federal on the spine but the title pages as well as the ads all say Street and Smith. Both books have exactly the same ads. I believe that both formats included the first six books of the series.

Frank Merriwell
1. School Days 1901
2. Chums 1902
3. Foes 1902
4.Trip West 1902
5. Down South 1903
6. Bravery 1903

I am arbitrarily going to call the book that's cover is the same as the Street and Smith Format 1-Format 1. This book has the familiar standing boy on the cover with red lettering.

The second book (Format 2) has the sitting boy cover which is one I have seen with books that are part of Street and Smith's Popular Series. Interestingly a Boys' Popular Series jacketed book I have has a Street and Smith jacket with a Federal imprint on the spine.

Regardless of the chronology of both of these books, we know That Federal was only operational between 1902 and 1904. Because Federal most likely followed Street and Smith in the publication of the Merriwell's, they were probably published in 1904.
Later I will discuss the much more common formats of the David McKay Frank Merriwell hard cover books.

Tom Brown -- publisher Laird and Lee

I plan to review the complete American publishing history of the two book Tom Brown series history in the future but thought I would point out a very interesting copy of one of the books that I received a couple of days ago. As you can imagine most of the editions are hardcover with a small percentage being in wraps. Here is a softcover copy published by Laird and Lee, a firm from Chicago.

This house was started in 1883 by Frederick Laird and William H. Lee. Its book list had numerous series of mysteries, juvenile books, dime novels such as the Pinkerton Detective Series, dictionaries, the works of Opie Read and William Thomes adventure stories. In 1894 Laird left and Lee continued on. By 1899 the house was the third largest publisher in Chicago.

What is much more interesting about Laird and Lee is where they sold many of their books. As a publishing house that was seen as a friend to labor and unions, their works were welcomed by railroad men. This contrasts to some other Chicago houses (Donohue Brothers, Geo. M. Hill and W.B. Conkey) who were actively boycotted against by unions (1901).


Over the years Laird and Lee had published a number of books about the "railroad". These and others of their books were sold by news dealers and "upon all trains". Imagine a railroad employee going up and down the aisles with books -many of which were Laird and Lee books. Note on the back of the book shown here there is an advertisement for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway.

This book published in 1892 was part of the multi authored Pastime Series. By 1896 there were 250 titles in this series.

Voyages en Zigzag -Precursor to the Zig Zag Series

I think the preeminent travelogue series of the 19th century was the Zig Zag Series. The seventeen books of he series sold hundreds of thousands of copies. it made author Hezekiah Butterworth a millionaire and boosted the fortunes of the publishing house of Estes and Lauriat. The story behind the series is somewhat interesting.

Butterworth (1839-1905) was an assistant editor with the Youth's Companion as well as a successful author when he was approached by Dana Estes of Estes and Lauriat. Estes showed Butterworth books written by Rodolphe Topffer Voyages en Zig-Zag (1843) and Nouveaux Voyages en Zig-Zag (1853). These books chronicled the adventures of a school teacher and his students. The Zig Zag name came from the zig zag nature of their travels. The Topffer books are elegant large books with gold gilt edged pages and numerous very well done illustrations. According to reviews the places described are accurate. Of course, since my copy is in French I haven't a clue about what Topffer is saying.

After Butterworth saw the books, he decided to go forward and cranked out 17 volumes of the Zig Zag Series between 1880 and 1896. (More about Butterworth and his books in the future.) The ZigZag books of Butterworth are certainly not of the same quality but they were indeed big sellers.

Crider and Brother Bookstore and Stationer

A number of bookstores were active in publishing as well as selling books. Most of them never advanced past the stage of being a minor publisher. The Crider book store is one of them.

I have three pieces of ephemera shown here today from Crider and Brother at 27 West market Street in York, Pa. David Crider along with H.M. Crider and S.L. Kephart began the Kephart, Crider and Brother in 1865. When Kephart retired the firm became Crider and Brother. After H.M. Crider left the firm the name stayed Crider and Brother. The firm specialized in marriage certificates initially and book publishing when David Crider took over. The marriage certificate business seemed to be the big money maker.




























H. M. Crider after leaving the firm was also a bookseller and stationer. His shop failed in 1885.

Some of the firms published works included the Song Treasury, Bright Gems and Silvery Echoes. All books that I am sure everyone has on their shelf today.

In 1899 the bookstore was sold.