some more consignment books....Scribner's Illustrated Classics

First- a note from my consignor: 

If after seeing the book from my previous blog post about the Delsarte System  (elocution, et al), anyone has a burning interest in old books regarding elocution and oratory -- please let me know.  There are several more boxes of books on this subject available. Unfortunately, their not the cool, illustrated ones with dramatic poses.  The ones that are still tucked away happen to be more... um...eh... dry.  They do, however, cover a time period from late 1890's through the 1930's  and range from elocution (the way you pronounce things to sound "correct")  and veer off towards linguistics or language acquisition.

And now I'm going to make a plug for Firsts Magazine.

I could have tracked down the information I needed by laborious slogging, but luck and timing were on my side last month when the consignment collection came my way.

To whit:  A subset of the books that came in this collection are from a series called The Scribner's Illustrated Classics.  The lucky thing was that Firsts Magazine issued a wonderful Holiday Issue this last year (December 2011) devoted to the works of N. C. Wyeth, which includes a long, detailed article about his relationship with the Scribner Illustrated Editions.

I did not simply take this information and stop there, mind you.  That would be folly. I took the information I found in this article and used it as a springboard to further research.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by N.C. Wyeth)

While Scribner's had had books in a similar format for a number of years (beginning with Eugene Field's Poems of Childhood, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish in 1904), the first formal book in the Scribner's Illustrated Classics is considered Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by N. C. Wyeth, 1911. 

N.C. Wyeth was not the only illustrator whose work was featured in this bold series, but he did illustrate the largest number of books - 16 - more than any other artist.

The series (by 1911) had a regular format:  Black cloth covers with pictorial pastedown illustrations to the front covers and anywhere from 9-14 interior illustrations in color. Most of the books were originally issued with a dust jacket that included a sizable color illustration (usually the dust jacket illustration matched the front cover illustration, but not always).  These dust jackets are now quite scarce and in some cases very rare. 

Legends of Charlemagne, by Thomas Bulfinch (illustrated by N.C. Wyeth)

 The books themselves, have become collectors items.  Partly that collect-ability is due to the authors whose work was featured. But mostly the collect-ability now comes from the illustrators and the illustrations which are such an integral part of these books.

David Balfour,  by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by N. C. Wyeth)

 Today, several of these books are very difficult to find in early printings (a quick check today showed that modern editions - with or without the original illustrations - are reprinted regularly).  The First Editions, when found in Very Good+ or better condition can range from  three to four figures depending on the author, illustrator and copies available.

Quentin Durward, by Sir Walter Scott (illustrated by C. Bosseron Chambers)

 The book series, begun in 1911, continued on a nearly one-a-year basis through the 1930's though the number of copies issued per book lessened as the depression took hold.  Book titles in the series ranged the gamut from adventure stories, to historical fiction, to westerns, and even poems. Some of the books are true classics of fiction, such as James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, while other titles were much more recent, including  John Fox Jr.'s The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (published in 1903) and Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's The Yearling (published 1938).

The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by N. C.Wyeth)

The books were very popular from the start and were reprinted regularly, though some small changes might occur between printings. Mostly, the number of color plates decreased for the reprint editions.  If the First Edition contained 12-14 color plates, later printings might have 8-9 color plates.  (Probably as a way to save on costs).  Not all reprints were modified and it is not a simple thing to determine First Edition status without some assistance of bibliographies.

The White Company, by A. Conan Doyle (Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth)

The series became so popular that other publishers took note and either worked with Scribners, or cribbed the idea and made their own, even to the point of getting the same illustrators (namely N. C. Wyeth) to work with them. So far I haven't found much information regarding these other illustrated series (haven't had time to yet), but the books were similarly bound, most had pictorial pastedowns on the covers, and in many cases, looked almost identical to the Scribner's books.  The David McKay Company, Cosmopolitan (NY), Houghton Mifflin and even Harper (and Brothers) got in on the act, releasing illustrated editions of classic books during the same time period as Scribner's did - getting in on the craze, as it were.


There's more to the story, of course -- it just happened that the publishers happened to have some of the greatest illustrators in history to work with -- and a buying public that was willing and able to purchase the goods.    And it's lucky for us that the books not only were published, but have survived so that we can enjoy them as well.

(PS:  crass commercial plug here -- the books shown today, in the last blog post, and in any future posts regarding the consignment collection ARE indeed available {on a first come first serve basis}, however they have not yet been posted to my website.  For more information about any of the titles shown here, or any other titles in the consignment, please feel free to email me).

Campbell's Soup is Mmm... Mmm... Good!

I decided, that since I'm going to San Francisco, and, since I have a small pile of ephemeral items that have been wasting away in a drawer for AGES...
that I'd put the two together.

Remember, I don't have much in the way of ephemera, nor do I really know the gig, inside and out, however, the items I picked up are worth a wee bit of time and effort, and since I needed some UNUSUAL stuff to take with me to the book fair, this was fair game.

So today, taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, I started to add the ephemeral items to my database (for the most part, just the basic info so I could put it on hold for the fair).

One of the items is a very large souvenir program for the 100th Anniversary of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus.  It's got all sorts of circus stuff included, a history of this / these circuses, etc. -- BUT -- it also has some congratulatory advertisements (see above) that are quite interesting.

Most interesting (to me at least) is this Campbell's Soup congratulations / advert.

Here's another view (sorry - again, camera person is NOT a photographer).

I've been trying for about an hour now to come up with the name of the illustrator for this piece of Pop Art advertising.

There's a tiny signature in the picture here:

 

As near as I can figure out, the signature LOOKS like John Alcorn (who is most famous for his children's picture book illustrations.... and he worked a great deal for Harlin Quist about whom I've blogged here before).

I'm not at all certain it is John Alcorn, but the shape of the letters, and the style of illustration (and especially the choice of colors) LOOKS like it could be a match.

I know it's NOT Andy Warhol.

If you happen to have a guess -- or even KNOW.  email me.

Either way, it's a neat picture and makes the 100th Anniversary program even more interesting.

Mittens by Clare Turlay Newberry

I learned something today (again -- this is why I LOVE what I do).

I had thought that Clare Turlay Newberry was the illustrator for which the Newbery Award was named --

WRONG.

It turns out that the award was named after John Newbery (note the different spellings of the name) a book seller from the eighteenth century. Here's a link for your edification: Newbery Awards.

Even if it's not the same, I love the illustrations in the book shown above. The illustrator did the illustrations in watercolor (using red black and white only) which was transferred to the pages of the book by the photogravure process.
 The drawings have the LOOK of fuzzy kitten fur and of course, she made her kitten (named Mittens) as cute as could be.

Even though this is an early reprint edition, it's in wonderful condition with a nice dust jacket.

It's just a wonderful children's picture book.

AND

I learned something about the book, and the Newbery Awards in the process.

F. Earl Christy... Illustrator

F. Earl Christy (who's no relation to Howard Chandler Christy) was an illustrator who produced art work in a variety of mediums. After finishing art school at the Pennsylvania Acadamy of the Fine Arts, he went into commercial illustrations, especially post cards (c 1905-1906)  (he was born in 1883, and died in 1961). During that time he gravitated to illustrations of women -- most particularly illustrations of college women and women in active sports. There is a series of postcards illustrated by Christy featuring women of the Big Four colleges (Yale, Harvard, etc.) which is now quite collectable.  He went on to produce magazine covers of all sorts, including illustrations of well known actresses of the day in particularly flattering poses, book cover art / dust jacket art such as the one shown above which modernized Sir Walter Scott's fair maiden in a completely unbelievable way (Ivanhoe is set in the time of Old England -- Robin Hoodish time) so the wonderful picture hat, the white elbow gloves,  the fur edged wrap, the posy of flowers (well, that could be timely) and the overall attire from the teen years of the 1900's really doesn't apply to the story.

The point of the dust jacket at the time of the book's production, however, wasn't to be historically accurate, but to appeal to the ladies who might spend their pin money on a classic for leisurely reading.  Putting a beautifully executed, modern piece of art illustration on the dust jacket was pure marketing. 

Most likely it worked well too.

Not only could the ladies carry this book around, safe in the knowledge that they were reading  an enlightening work that would in no way lead them astray from their moral upbringing, but it would also be an example to show to the milliner,  the glove maker, the furrier and to the dressmaker for the upcoming season's latest fashion (or, if you weren't as well off, a picture which you could use to make your own pattern for a fancy dress).

Today, the book itself carries very little value (it is, after all, just another reprint copy of a book that was produced in LARGE numbers since it's publication in 1819), but the dust jacket art surrounding the book does have collectable value. So today, just as in the time (somewhere between 1917 and 1923) the dust jacket art is the marketable feature.

And it's still a draw.

It's a picture that could be stared at for quite some time, all the while, finding new subtleties, new bits to look at.
 If you get a chance, click on the picture and take a closer look.

The Garden Behind the Moon

Howard Pyle is rightly known for his wonderfully lush color illustrations of books by other authors, and for books which he either wrote or contributed to -- Especially well known are couple of books in particular: a series of four volumes of the collected stories of King Arthur, and the Tales of Robin Hood (which he altered to fit his needs rather willy-nilly). The vivid use of color and action in his art was, in its own way, pioneering. Later in his life, he founded a school of his own to help teach others -- interestingly (at least to me) 40 of his students were women. The school was later recognized as the Brandywine school -- to represent the illustrators, and especially the Wyeth family of artists and their particular view and artistic outlook.

The illustrations in this particular book are all black and white line drawings, but still the artistry and the movement Pyle was able to convey in duotone is quite exceptional.


Very detailed work here.






Even though the illustration is a bit farther away visually than I'd like for this (remember my camera skills), you can still see the emotion on the faces of the people in this plate.

(PS: I'm going to have to try to get a scholarship to the Rare Book School in Virginia for next summer -- several people I know have gone and had a wonderful time -- learned lots too -- so now I'm jealous and need to go too! Also, I could use some study in types of prints & how they were / are made).

This particular book is from 1895 and is one of the last books he wrote and illustrated.

Pyle died in 1911 in Florence Italy.

Sunbonnet Babies...

Both of these books feature the Sunbonnet Babies -- the babies, created and illustrated by Bertha Corbett Mecher, became a HUGE hit in the early 1990's. As you can tell from the covers, the babies wear sunbonnets (the old style that were most associated with the wagon trains) which completely cover their faces.
Stubby little arms make the girls look like toddlers and the clothing completely covers their bodies (so basically you see the arms, the hats and the big poofy floppy dresses on the girls and nothing else (which -- if you want to be snarky, is a good way to get out of the hard work of drawing faces and other body parts -- I've never been good at drawing any body parts, so I'd be first in line to try NOT to).






I've had these books around for a while & I love not only the illustrations, but the quaintness (is that a word?) associated with the books. I COULD call them Darling even (but I'm not really that sort of person.

While they are still quite collectable, the market, and the collectors for the series are becoming farther afield. Which means the books might stay on my shelves for a few more years to come.

I don't mind. I enjoy looking at them anyway.

Nutshell Library update...

I mentioned that if I found any further information on the Nutshell Library (the one from the 1960's) I'd add a note to the blog...

Courtesy of Richard Mori of Mori's Books, there IS a fourth set available... by A.A. Milne -- it's four miniature books in the Winnie-the-Pooh series.

That brings the list to:

Maurice Sendak
Hilary Knight
Robert Kraus
and
A. A. Milne

if you happen to know of more, please let me know.

Suckered myself again....

Yesterday, I dealt (in a small way) with some ex library copies that I couldn't pass up.

Today, it's the old... do I buy something because I CAN remember all the information I need to, or do I pass it up because I CAN'T remember...

First off, let me set the scene for you.

I go book hunting for some of my stock by checking book fairs, book sales, friends of the library stores, etc. Normally, I DON'T take my references with me (because the one you need would always be left behind anyway). It's my job to REMEMBER this stuff on the fly.

I have at least one reference to Dr. Seuss titles (First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books by Younger & Hirsch .... I highly recommend it).

SO I was looking in a Friends of the Library store I frequent regularly and saw about four Dr. Seuss titles WITH dust jackets....

Dust jackets for most books are de rigueur...(ok, for books that HAVE dust jackets, there's a whole lot more from before the 1800's that don't but I don't deal with those much...)

ANYWAY...

Finding early Dr. Seuss titles with dust jackets is a GOOD thing.

The lovely staff at this store tried to do some research on the books & labeled at least one of them a 1st edition... which means that the price goes up accordingly.

Now, here's the part where the instincts and the training are supposed to come into play.

Remember, I don't have this particular reference on hand, and if I leave the store to travel half an hour back home to get it, someone else could snaffle this batch of books right from under my nose...


I'm pretty sure none of the books is a first. I know THAT much at least. But this one...

Well, my brain was chugging along enough to ask the staff if I could check online (they have a computer they use for this very purpose ... normally I would NEVER ask this sort of thing, but the price tag was $35.00 and I wanted to be very sure).

Got on the computer (with the lovely lady looking right over my shoulder). Some of the info looked ok, but I really needed to take a closer look. Which meant pulling out my reference.
Which I DIDN'T HAVE.

SO, being a good bookseller, I put the book on my pile anyway.

NEVER pass up a Dust jacketed Dr. Seuss in decent condition, especially if it looks like an early copy. That's a mantra most children's picture book dealers learn early on.

Now I didn't get greedy. The other three Dr. Seuss titles were definitely NOT early printings (or 1st as marked) and the prices were too high for the condition (some of the dust jackets were missing whole chunks) so the only one I put in my pile was this one.

Of course, this isn't the only book I buy that day. Which is a good thing, because when I get back to my references and start checking points, I find out this is definitely NOT a 1st edition, in fact, while it's early, it's not even THAT early.

What the staff at the Friends of the Library didn't do (and what I didn't have time to do there) was to check the list of titles on the reverse of the dust jacket --

All it would have taken for either of us to figure out this is NOT a first edition , would be to run down the dates on the list .... because there, sticking out like a sore thumb, was a book published in 1962. (Horton Hears a Who was originally published in 1954).

CAN'T MISS IT!!!
(actually, I need to pull a copy of the wikipedia list and put it in my overstuffed purse with all the other notes that I find useful).

So now this copy (early & generally very good+ WITH the dj) which cost me $35.00 (plus tax & gas) is now going on my website for $40.00.

It serves me right for being a bit greedy.

On the other hand, I learned a very valuable lesson that won't be forgotten (which is the way collectable dealers learn most of their lessons....and I've got a few zingers in my past to remember).


There are some books that you have a great feeling about that actually DO turn into something wonderful.

Another day I'll tell that sort of story.