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.