An 1894 Blackie Henty Advertising Flyer

Today in a Henty book I found a nice little two page flyer advertising Blackie Henty books. This is the second one I have seen and therefore Blackie must have printed a number of them. My guess is that they probably published a new one yearly as an advertising vehicle. But this is purely a guess. Each page measures 4.75 x 3.5.

In attempting to date this piece I have looked at all the books listed. I checked their dates with the authoritative source about Henty books-Peter Newbolt's G.A. Henty.
(This volume is 700 page long.) If you have any interest in Henty, this book is a must. Newbolt has print run numbers for the Blackie Henty's -pretty impressive.




Through the Sikh War published on June 13th, 1894 is the latest published book I can find within the listed books. Thus, this is an 1894 advertising piece.

The book I found it in is shown here. It was published by Sampson Low, Marston and Company. I do not know its date.

George M. Hill-Publisher and His Henty Series

George M. Hill, a book binder, was a Chicago book publisher active between 1898 and 1902. Although most famous for the publication of the early L. Frank Baum books (particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 1900), it also published some other juveniles. In 1901 Hill obtained the exclusive right to publish Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It appears that Hill published little on his own imprint after 1902.

The George M. Hill Company was in bankruptcy court by 1902. Thereafter, Hill may have restarted a book bindery but his publishing days were over. Various works were purchased by other publishing companies. Reilly and Britton got the rights to the Baum books as well the the Webster's Dictionary.Of course, it is no mystery how Reilly and Britton got the "pick of the litter" Frank Reilly had been the general manager of Hill and Sumner Britton has been the sales manager. As Hill was going under, Reilly and Britton in 1902 was being founded.

The vest pocket books were sold to David McKay. George W. Ogilvie bought many titles. And based on the evidence here, Mershon got the rights to the Henty Series which Hill had published.



















As with many publishers of this era George Hill published a series of Henty books. The Hill series numbered 37 volumes. I have only seen the one cover- shown at the top of this entry.
As can be seen above, the rear of dust jacket of what appears to be the earliest of the Mershon Henty Series variants is identical to the Hill series (except for the imprint), Hill was only one of many publishers that printed reprint Henty Series. Others included Hurst, Donohue, Burt, Allison, and Lupton to name a few.

George M. Hill Co. dust jacketed books are somewhat scarce. Here is a nice example

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.