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.