Henry Altemus Company

Non Series #52- The Evolution of Man

Drummond, Henry vs. Altemus & Co.

The Evolution of Man by Professor Henry Drummond was published in 1893 by Henry Altemus. The book and its dust jacket is listed here as non series book #52.

The title page states that the book consists of the Lowell Lectures delivered at Boston, Mass., April, 1893 delivered by Professor Henry Drummond. In addition to the introduction, there are 8 chapters. This book was never reprinted or advertised after 1893.

The question is why. The answer is quite interesting. Drummond sued Altemus in Circuit Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania later shortly after the book was published asking for an injunction alleging violation of his common-law right of property.

The injunction was granted and Altemus never again published this title.

Here is what happened. Drummond had sent reports of eight of the lectures (Altemus' chapters) to a journal called the British Weekly. Altemus basically copied these lectures but not verbatim. Rather the publisher edited the lectures and significantly revised sections "which altered their purport". The problem was that Altemus represented the Altemus book as containing the actual reports (lectures). The court found that this was fraud and granted the injunction in January, 1894.

The court further pointed out that if Altemus had copied the British Weekly columns exactly that Drummond would have had no case.

Non Series #58

Altemus, Bobby Burnit and false advertising.

In 1908 Altemus published Get Rich Quick Wallingford by George Randolph Chester (Non Series #58). George Randolph Chester (1869-1924) was an author, playright and actor. This book was the first of a series of three books about a con man and the only one published by Henry Altemus.

Inspired by the success of the book Altemus planned to publish his next book. The Making of Bobby Burnit. On February 27, 1909 this advertisement appeared in Publishers' Weekly.

This title was never mentioned again in any of the Altemus catalogues or in any other Henry Altemus book trade advertisement. Of course, there have been examples of other titles noted in book ads that were never published by the advertising company.

Without any mention in any book trade journals, Bobbs Merrill Company published The Making of Bobby Burnit in June, 1909.

Scrapbooks (Newspaper Cuttings)

Altemus & Co. published mainly Bibles and photographic albums between 1863 and 1892. They also produced blank books, collection books, ledgers etc. Apparently scrapbooks were also part of the publishing inventory in these years. This particular one was copyrighted in 1874. 9.5 x 7.5

Altemus book bindery

In the early years of Altemus & Company the main order of business was as a book bindery. Examples of early work however are hard to find.

Here is an 1850 example (Leaflets of Memory edited by Reynell Coates). This book published by E. H. Butler & Co. cites Mr. Altemus as the executor of the embellished binding.

Record Album

A phonograph album published by Altemus has been discovered.

The album pictured below has 12 numbered pages each with a slot for a record. It is not dated and there are no clues as to the publication date.

On the back of the cover the Henry Altemus Co. name above the word Philadelphia is noted.

I assume it was published sometime in the 1920's but this is a guess.

Mary Godolphin and Altemus

Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) wrote a number of one syllable versions of well known classic books. These were published under the Mary Godolphin pseudonym. Several of these books were copied without attribution by Henry Altemus for inclusion within some of its series. The adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Aesop's fables and The Pilgrim's Progress are the titles appropriated by Altemus.

The illustrations are not the same but the text is identical. The Altemus books can be found in The Young People's Library (#202), One Syllable Series (#137), Favorite Series (#86/#87), Boys and Girls' Classics Series (#57), Ever New Books for Young People (#82).

The Godolphin authored books were published many times by countless publishers. The original editions were published in the late 1860's by Routledge. Thereafter, reprints were done by Cassell, McLoughlin, Monarch, Hurst, A.L. Burt, Saalfield, and many more. A number of publishers reprinted these stories without using the author's name - i.e. Altemus.

Altemus published several other "One Syllable" titles not written by Godolphin. I suspect that they "borrowed" those books as well. In the 1890's Cassell published a one syllable series that included the Godolphin books as well as Gulliver's Travels. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will be able to review this book.

Examples of a Robinson Crusoe and an Aesop's Fables book are shown below.

Jacob Abbott and Altemus

Between 1848 and 1861 32 biographical histories "the Makers of History" Series were published by Harper and Brothers. 22 of these were written by Jacob Abbott while the remaining ten were written by his brother, John S.C. Abbott. Henry Altemus as well as numerous other publishers reprinted these works between the late 1890's and the early part of the 20th century.

Altemus published 18 of the 32 in three different series. First they were published in Series #35 Abbott's Historical Series (1900). Shortly thereafter they were included in Series #202-Formats 2 and 3 - The Young People's Library. Finally in 1911 they were used in Series #170 Stories from History Series.

The Altemus Abbott books all used the same same plates and had the same illustrations. But they misidentified the author in several books. Frequently these books were all attributed to Jacob Abbott even though John S.C. Abbott wrote his fair share. Some later reprint series noted Jacob Abbott as the author of all 32 books. Altemus does credit John S.C. Abbott as the author of Marie Antoinette but as can be seen below Altemus states Jacob Abbott wrote the other 17 biographies.

In fact, John S.C. Abbott wrote Hernando Cortez, Josephine, Madame Roland as well as the Antoinette book.

Unknown Series

Even the expert can be stumped from time to time. There are times when I just cannot identify which series a book is from but I am sure that the book does belong to a series. After working with Altemus books over the years, the series books just have a certain feel to them. There are some instances where the series has not been advertised or listed anywhere, yet the book, its jacket or its box gives a series name (Series #65- Christmas Gift Series). There are other instances where there is not mention of a series but several books of the same format and style have been seen. In these instances I have arbitrarily given the series a name (See Series #205 Little Color Books Series).

Below are two examples of books that undoubtedly are within a series but at this time the series cannot be identified.

The Scarlet Letter below was published in 1899. It has a picture with an 1899 copyright which indicates an 1899 or later publication date. It was published by Henry Altemus not Henry Altemus Company which tells us it was published before 1900. Thus, 1899 is the year. There is no 1899 series that this book fits within. There is also no 1899 Scarlet Letter published outside a series published in 1899 based on the Altemus catalogues.

Tanglewood Tales below has the same characteristics as the Scarlet Letter book. 1899 copyright picture and published by Henry Altemus. Also therefore an 1899 book. But again no series that this books fits into.

Both books are the same size -6.5 x 4.5. They clearly however have no other similarities of style/format.

Hopefully other similar books will turn up in the future. For now these books will be categorized as UNKNOWN SERIES

Of unrelated interest is that these titles are frequently wrongly dated by unsophisticated sellers/buyers. Reprints of these titles always include the original prefaces. These prefaces are dated in the 1850's. Some mistake the preface reprint for an original publication date.