Lothrop, Lee and Shepard- Dating Your Book

How is it possible that dealers and booksellers have so much trouble dating their books? I would think if you are not sure of the date, your ad should either not give a date or give the date as your supposition. Of course, some books are hard to figure out. But there are some basic rules.

For books published by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard there is one absolute certainty. If the imprint or book spine has the words Lothrop, Lee and Shepard on it, the book has to date later than August 1904 (1905). What happened was the Lothrop Publishing Company failed in 1904 having debts 0f $110,000. In August, 1904 Lee and Shepard purchased all Lothrop's assets and incorporated as Lothrop, Lee and Shepard at that time. From a practical point- if the book says Lothrop, Lee and Shepard it is from 1905 or later.
(Lee and Shepard Publishers for the People--Raymond Kilgour- Shoe String Press 1965)

Here are some examples of poor efforts by dealers. I have included examples from different book selling sites. Note how these incorrectly dated books are even called first editions by some reputable dealers.



THIS IS AN 1891 NOVEL BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE....A HARDCOVER FORMAT BOOK...."CUDJO'S CAVE...504 PAGES....PUBLISHED BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON.

Sidney, Margaret; Jessie McDermott (illustrator). FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS : Phronsie Pepper Youngest of the Five Little Peppers. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1897. First Edition First Printing.

Aguinaldo a Narrative of Filipino Ambitions
Wildman, Edwin
Price: US$ 500.00
Book Description: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co, Boston, 1901. Cloth. Book Condition: Very Good. First Edition. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. First Edition

Hawaii's Story By Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani
Queen Liluiokalani
Price: US$ 350.00
Book Description: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, Boston, 1898. Decorated Cloth Hardback. Book Condition: Good Plus or a Little Better. Original First Printing.

Bookseller Photo
Camp and Trail: A Story of the Maine Woods
Hornibrook, Isabel
Price: US$ 225.00
Book Description: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Boston, 1897. Binding is Hard Cover. First Edition.


These listings are very troublesome. And they are but a tip of the iceberg. Without even looking at the book, it is obvious that these Lothrop, Lee and Shepard published books are not pre-1900 volumes.

If a dealer cannot accurately date these books, how can anyone trust that dealer to accurately describe whether a book is a first edition in circumstances when that determination may be somewhat difficult.

Lee and Shepard Advertising Flyer

Publisher's Advertising flyers are one of my favorite collectibles. This type of ephemera is not only extremely scarce but when found, very helpful to a bibliophile's research.

Here is a great example from the Lee and Shepard publishing house. Although there is no mention of the publisher's name on the flyer, the books were all published by Lee and Shepard. In addition several books which were published by Lee and Shepard in 1902 have ads that say "Ready September ".





A number of first edition Stratemeyer's are noted in addition to a books from Everett Tomlinson's Series.

It is my guess that most of these flyers were initially placed into books as advertising that was to supplement the ads in the back of the book. I am not sure whether these flyers were also given to book stores to be given to customers at or near the checkout register.

Shown here is a book from this advertising piece.

Tom Brown in Parts-First Serialized Version

The two Tom Brown books (Tom Brown's Schooldays and Tom Brown at Oxford) written by Thomas Hughes (1822-1896) were two of the most popular and well read books of the second half of the nineteenth century. Initially both were published in England but their American reprints are ubiquitous. More than 50 publishers reprinted these two titles in numerous formats between the 1860's and 1900. The popularity probably stems from the realistic portrayal of school boy life in England.
The American first editions were published by Ticknor and Fields 1857 (Schooldays) and Ticknor and Fields 1861 (at Oxford)

Some of the reprints are quite commonly found whereas others are next to impossible to locate. Perhaps the most difficult to locate are the books in wraps and the paperback books. Of these, undoubtedly the scarcest is the serialized version of Tom Brown at Oxford that was published monthly in 17 parts by Ticknor and Fields between 1859 and 1861. These parts were the authorized reproduction of parts being published in England by MacMillan.

It would seem that each part should be relatively easy to obtain based on the number published. They are fragile enough for not many to have survived over the years.
Here are the publication number:
Parts I-II 2000 copies each
Parts III, IV, VI-XIII- 1500 copies
Parts V, XIV, XV -1000 copies
Parts XVI, XVII - 750 copies

Harper and Brothers published their pirated copy of this book from the Ticknor parts. Its first volume was published in 1860 and is the first American edition (at least in part) of this book.
The second volume of the book by Harpers was published after an agreement was reached with Ticknor. Ticknor and Fields published the 2 volume set of Tom Brown at Oxford in November 24, 1860 (Volume 1) and July 16, 1861 (Volume 2). Both books however had 1861 on the title page.

Pictured here are two of the 17 parts (Nos. III and VII). Although there are no insert ads like the typical parts seen in Dickens' works, there are ads on the back covers and after the text (in Part III) The booklets are small (7.25 x 4.5). Interestingly part VII ends in mid sentence -just like the Harper and Brothers pirated edition of Volume 1.

Ralph Henry Barbour and Lippincott

Although Ralph Henry Barbour (1870-1944) is best known for the various sport's books he wrote (more than 100), he also penned a number of adult romances, fiction and mystery books.

Of the 14 adult romance books he wrote, 11 were published by J.B. Lippincott Company. The other three were published by Appleton, Richard Badger, and Moffat, Yard and Co.

The Lippincott books are quite exceptional. Cloth with gold gilt designs. Applique pictures on the cover. The pages were all glossy with border decorations and pictures. With a $1.50- $2.00 price tag they were special books.They were published between 1904 and 1915, simultaneously with the publication of Barbour's sports' books.




As is to be expected, Lippincott produced advertising flyers to announce these books. Appreciate that the June 5, 2009 entry in this blog showed some stamps promoting Lippincott books. The Barbour book, Heart's Content, can be seen there.

Shown here is an advertising flyer for An Orchard Princess which was published in 1905. I suspect all of the Lippincott Barbour books had these flyers. This is the only one I have seen

OLiver Optic Inscription

William Taylor Adams (1822-1897) had a prolific output under the nom de plume of Oliver Optic. As the scion of American presidents , he grew up in a reasonably privileged home. He was an editor of juvenile magazines ( Student and Schoolmate, Oliver Optic's Magazine and Our Little One's Magazine) as well as an author of more than 120 books.

The books , being more adventurous than moralistic, were the object of derision by fellow authors as well as pundits of the day. Despite that fact, his books were huge sellers -from the first adventure story-The Boat Club in 1855- until his last book in 1898 An Undivided Union (which was completed by Edward Stratemeyer).

Mainly his books were published within series, The Blue and Gray Series, The Yacht Club Series, The Boat Club Series, etc.. The title of the series pretty much defined the type of adventure that the books described.

Pictured here is a book from the Blue and Gray Army Series. This book is special because of the inscription. Of course, Oliver Optic signed many books but this particular inscription is quite unique. Here the written inscription is signed to the dedicatee of the book, George White. Beyond that , Optic notes in his inscription "first copy".

Thus a first copy inscribed to the dedicatee of the book. A fascinating piece.

Walt Henley Series-Rare Juvenile Series

Here is another installment on the rarest juvenile series. The series discussed today is the three book Walt Henley Series written by Alfred Loomis and published by Ives Washburn. As is almost always the case, the rare series books have publishers who did not specialize in juvenile series books.

Ives Washburn began publishing in 1926. Previously he had worked at the Century and Doran publishing Houses. Washburn was a small publishing house throughout its history. The Walt Henley Series was the only juvenile series of note until the Black Tiger Series and the Ted Wilford Series, both mainly published in the 1960's. Precipitated by the death of the long time (1947-1967) president of the company Sumner Putnam in 1967, a sale to David McKay of the stock of Ives Washburn, Inc. was made in 1968. Putnam was only the second president of the company as he succeeded Ives Washburn who died in 1947. Even after the purchase however , the Washburn imprint was continued.

The Walt Henley Series was a three book series published between 1927 and 1929.

1. Walt Henley DSM 1927
2. Walt Henley, Overseas 1928
3. Walt Henley, Skipper 1929

The blue cloth books are blindstamped with the title and author in gold gilt lettering on the front cover.

The Author, Alfred Loomis, had acted as a quartermaster on a submarine chaser in WW1. Prior to book #1 he had just completed a 2000 mile cruise around the Baltic Sea. His Naval exploits gave his books a credibility.

These books had very limited print runs by Ives Washburn and thus are quite rare. The dust jackets are extremely difficult to find. Clearly one of the toughest juvenile series to obtain.

19th Century Dust Jackets- Payne Holden and Company

19th century dust jackets are quite scarce. As you can imagine, the jackets were frequently removed from the book voluntarily or torn/destroyed involuntarily. Most of the jackets of course were published contemporaneously with the books by the publisher of the book.

There is a subcategory however in which the jackets were published by a different company. Payne, Holden and Company, based in Dayton was one of these latter companies. Advertisements in the various trade journals in the late 1870's advertise the Payne Holden book covers. The book covers were patented November 16, 1875 as per the advertisements. As noted below, the covers were for covering "school books". They could be applied in one second and were stronger than cloth.

This book" An Elementary Grammar of the English Language for the Use of Schools" written by Thos. W. Harvey was copyrighted in 1869. It was one of numerous well received school books published by Wilson, Hinkle & Co. from Cincinnati. This book was co-published with Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger (Philadelphia) and Clark & Maynard ( New York).

Exact dating is impossible but I can get pretty close. Clark & Maynard were in business between 1863 and 1889. Claxton, Remsen, & Heffelfinger published books between 1868 and 1880. Since these jackets were patented in 1875, this book and jacket are undoubtedly from the years between 1875 -1880. An inscription scribbled in the book of 1883 helps a bit.

This is a nice example of an 1870's dust jacket

The Mershon Company- History and Dust Jackets

The Mershon Company was an active publishing house between 1897 and 1906. Mainly known as a reprint house of classics and juvenile literature, it also published a number of original
works such as the Bobbsey Twins and Rover Boys.

In 1893 the Cassell Publishing House was reorganized. Apparently its previous manager Oscar Dunham had absconded with $180,000 and financially Cassell was in a desperate situation. A new Cassell Publishing Company was organized in New York with William Mershon as president and manager. Prior to this Mershon had been in charge of his own bookbinding, electrotyping, and printing establishment. in Rahway , NJ.

In 1897 Mershon left Cassell to start his own publishing company. In 1905 the name of the firm was changed to Stitt. Apparently the new company run by William Stitt was not successful and the company returned to the Mershon imprint in 1906.


Apparently He was in business until October,1906 at which time his publishing business were sold to Chatterton- Peck. Charles Peck had been a long time employee of The Mershon Company.

For more details see John Dizer: Tom Swift. the Bobbsey Twins and Other Heroes of American Juvenile Literature. The Edward Mellen Press. 1997Frequently ads from dealers and booksellers describe books as without dust jacket-as issued. The reality with most all books from the 1890's and later is that generally all of them had jackets and/or were boxed. Of course, no amount of explanation is enough. My thought is that if you do not know something about a book, then make no claim.

Here are two sample ads from a book sales service:

Captain Bailey Heir
Henty, G. A.
Mershon, 1900. Hard cover. Book Condition: Good. Good. No dust jacket as issued.

By England's Aid Or The Freeing Of The Netherlands 1585-1604
Henty, G.A.
Mershon Company. Hardback. No Dustjacket, probably as issued.

It amazes me that without knowledge and without doing the research that some dealers assume jacketless books are the norm- when quite the opposite is the case. This entry shows a couple of jacketed Mershon books from the first decade of the 20th century.

Porter and Coates Stereoview of Its Store

Porter and Coates was a Philadelphia publisher active in the mid and late 19th century.

Their history began as Davis and Porter (1848-1865) which was succeeded by Davis, Porter and Co. (1865-1866) and then by Davis, Porter and Coates (1866-1867) and then Porter and Coates
1867-1895).
Known for well made books, Porter and Coates' authors included Harry Castlemon, J.T Trowbridge, Edward Ellis and Horatio Alger. It published numerous reprint series which included most author's of the day including Dickens, Verne, etc.

The stereoview above is a look into the Porter and Coates's store. It was located at 822 Chestnut from 1848-1884. Thus this photo was taken between 1867-1884. Unfortunately my eyes are not sharp enough to pick out any specifics from the picture-- But a wonderful look nonetheless.

Altemus advertising of Shakespeare Series (#164)

Altemus ephemera
In the early 1900’s department stores were a popular place to buy books. Most large stores had impressive book departments. I remember even as late as the 1950’s in my hometown of Milwaukee Gimbels, The Boston Store and Schusters had these departments.


Here is a fascinating advertising ephemera piece.




The Shakespeare Series (#164) was a 39 volume set published from 1899 until Henry Altemus Company went out of business in 1933. The books were sold separately as well as by the set. Boxed sets were sold beginning in 1909. As of the date of this flyer in 1907 the hard cover books sold for 35 cents while the soft leather ones sold for 50 cents.

One of the things that I have noticed over the years is how common these books are. I am asked questions about this series almost as often as I am about any Altemus books. The only reasonable explanation is that they were a giant selling success for Altemus. Perhaps this flyer helps us understand a bit.

Here is a department store from Rochester (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibley's) that is offering quite a deal. Sibley’s offers 27 volumes of this series at 15 cents each i.e. 56% off the retail price. This is on some payment plan that is not elucidated by the flyer but when the payments are done, the remaining 12 books are given to the buyer for no additional cost. This is a great deal. Effectively that is selling the whole set for $4.05 -a bit more than a dime per book.

The reverse side of the flyer allows the purchaser to select which 27 titles he wants.
This flyer which is 7.75 x 3.75 was found in a copy of one of the Shakespeare’s books. This is the only flyer I have seen that mentions Altemus books which was not an Altemus publication.

For more information on Henry Altemus please refer to my site henryaltemus.com .

Lippincott Advertising Flyer with Stamps

Book publisher advertisements are fascinating works of industry ephemera. They certainly are among my favorite collecting pieces. Here is an unusual one.

In the mid teens of the 20th century J.B. Lippincott produced "poster stamp portraits" which the purchaser of the named books was invited to use as Book Plates. This little flyer included 6 "stamps" of popular Lippincott authors. The included authors were Hewlett, Barbour, Ingram, Lockhart, Lutz, and Walton. I am dating this piece from 1915 since the Barbour book "Heart's Content" was published in that year.

Most all advertising flyers from this era include only text and information. This one with the "stamps" is quite exceptional.

Boxed sets from the 19th century

In the 19th century virtually all juvenile series initially came in boxed sets. Whether the books were adventure series, moralistic tinged or religious in subject material, they all came in boxes. Of course, like 19th century dust jackets the boxes are very hard to find.

This 10 volume series- Aunt Gracie's Library was published by Phillips and Hunt. Although the exact date is unclear, this publishing house was in business between 1879 and 1889 and was at the 805 Broadway address between 1884-1890 thus dating the series:1884-1889.

The 10 little volumes are 4.75 x 3.00. They have gold gilt spine titles and decorations. As is common with these boxes, the series name and book titles are on a paste-on at the top of the box.

I have been collecting these box sets for many years and still have not come across many. Truly a tough collector find.

A Rare Work of Jacob Abbott

Jacob Abbott (1803-1879) was a prolific 19th century author of children's books and religious works. His 10 Rollo's Travels books have been reprinted by upwards of 30 publishers in various formats. His other works The Franconia Stories, The Rollo Story Books, Harper Story Books among others are moralistic tales of children. Over the course of his life he penned more than 200 books. These are well described by Carl J. Weber in his "A Bibliography of Jacob Abbott" Colby College Press 1948. This volume lists all the titles although not all the various publishers' reprints. At least that is what I thought until recently.

A new piece by Jacob and his brother John S.C. Abbott has come to my attention.

The Abbott's produced drawing lessons for "schools and families". Published in 1845 by Saxton & Miles the they published an eight page pamphlet entitled "Directions to accompany Abbott's Series of Drawing Cards". Their pamphlet gives directions to the student on materials, proportion, perpendicularity, etc. The pamphlet as well as 26 "drawing cards" are contained within a box with the Clark & Austin imprint.


The cards-two of which are shown here- are of simple scenes of houses, trees, fields and the like.





Although many of Abbott's works are quite uncommon, I believe this piece to be among the rarest of his works.

Arthur Conan Doyle and Henry Altemus

Henry Altemus published many great works of literature. Virtually all of them however were reprints of older original works. My site henryaltemus.com can give you an idea of the extent to which this is true.

Of interest is that the classic Doyle bibliography does not give all of the Doyle Altemus books. Green and Gibson in A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle (1999) lists Beyond the City and The Sign of the Four. No dates or other information is noted.







For completeness, Henry Altemus in its Printemps Series of 1895 (see http://henryaltemus.com/series/series152.htm) also published A Study in Scarlet and A Case of Identity. All the books in this series had the same cover illustration drawn by Archie Gunn.

Three of the four Doyle books are shown here.

What are the rarest juvenile series books? In Ed Mattson's A Collector's Guide to Hardcover Boys' Series Books (1997) a number of long time collectors gave their lists. With the advent of the internet I think the choices would be somewhat different. Books published by the cheap reprint publishing houses such as Grosset and Dunlap, A.L. Burt, Cupples and Leon among others surely would no longer be included. Personally I think that the books published by publishing houses that did not specialize in juvenile books and had limited print runs would find their books on the rarest book lists.

Among the very toughest are the two series written by Howard Garis (of Uncle Wiggily fame) published by R.F. Fenno and Company. Mattson notes only two series by Fenno. Those Smith Boys and The Island Boys Series.



Those Smith Boys consisted of two books. Those Smith Boys (1910) and Those Smith Boys on the Diamond (1912). The former book has four glossy pictures illustrated by Wm. F. Taylor. The latter book has four glossy pictures done by Louis Wisa. Ads state "Other books in preparation" but none were ever done.

The second series The Island Boys only consists of "The Island Boys" (1912) and has 4 glossy illustrations by Louis Wisa. Of interest is that a second title in this series is mentioned on the last page of the book as well as in the ads-The Island Boys in Camp. It appears it was a phantom title since it was never published.




You will note that both 1912 books which were illustrated by Louis Wisa also have the initials LW in a small box on the book cover. This undoubtedly indicates that Wisa also designed these two covers.






Those Smith Boys was reprinted by M.A. Donohue. This reprint is not common but nowhere near as rare as the Fenno version.



Of course, it is certain that these books originally had dust jackets but I have never seen one.

Hurst advertising postcard

Just as trade cards were popular vehicles for advertising in the 19th century, post cards were popular in the early years of the 20th century. Nonetheless, they are hard to find.

Here is an advertising postcard for Hurst & Company, a major player in the juvenile series book world from the early 1900's to 1919. During those years Hurst published 23 boy's juvenile series, a number of girl's series as well as mixed author's series, Alger Series and Henty Series. Some of their series-in particular the Frank Armstrong Series and the Rex Kingdon Series are difficult to find in dust jackets. In fact because of relatively low print runs, many of Hurst's series are difficult to complete in dust jacketed copies.

This is the only postcard advertisement for Hurst that I have seen but Hurst also advertised with flyers placed within its books. This was commonplace with many publishers. Flyers, accordion ad sheets, or mini pamphlets were placed within a book so the reader could be apprised of other books within their interest range.

Here is an example of a flyer found within a Hurst book

Lee and Shepard Trade Card

In the 19th century book publishers advertised their works in many printed forms. One commonly used was the trade card. Here is a great example from the 1880's. Edward Greey (1835-1888) wrote several travel books published by Lee and Shepard. First in the Trophies of Travel Series three of the six books were by Greey. Young Americans in Japan (1881), Wonderful City of Tokio(1882) and The Bear Worshippers of Yezo(1883)

Later these three books with new names- Young Americans in Japan, Y.A. in Yezo, Y.A. in Tokio were republished as the Young Americans in Japan Series. All of the books highlighted the adventures of the Jewett family and their travels in the far east.

The travelogue books were common and giant sellers for a number of book publishers in this era. The books were generally oversized (9 x 7 ) and were published with illuminated pictorial covers as well as in cloth with gilt trim and decorations. Other examples include the Zigzag books, the Knockabout Club, and the Boy Travellers.

These elegant books were well bound with numerous illustrations. Some examples of Greey's Lee and Shepard books are below.


















Charles E. Brown , a Boston publisher, included the three Greey books in his 1892 Roundabout Series.

Greey wrote other non-series books published by Lee and Shepard. The Golden Lotus and Other Stories (1882) as well as A Captive of Love (1886).