Henry Altemus Company

Salesman Dummy Book Dore's Masterpieces

This sample book is from the early 1890's. The door to door publisher's representative would show this book to prospective buyers. This book highlights Format 1 of the Dore's Masterpieces Series.

This is the second Salesman Sample book of this series that I have seen. This book differs a bit from the other one. Its condition is not quite as good and I think two of the covers that would have been part of the book may have been removed.

The external covers have Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno. Note that the other sample book has these two covers internally. Milton's Paradise Lost was bound upside down. The covers are 12" x 9.75".

Inside the front cover are three sample spines.

Within the book are excerpts from Dore's Bible Gallery, Dante's Inferno, and Milton's Paradise Lost. Interestingly a one page flyer advertising Paradise Lost is tipped in at the first page of its excerpt.

In the back are a number of pages of customers who had ordered one ofthese books. The addresses are all in the northern California area (Sacramento, Stockton, etc.)

Dore Masterpieces

Most of the 7 books which comprise the Dore Masterpieces Series have been found with advertising flyers within them. This was not uncommon for Altemus books in this era. I have seen Dore flyers in several different styles.

1. Single page one sided flyers. There exist single advertising sheets for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Idylls of the King. These are 10.5 x 6. 2. Single sheet - two sided ads. This ad includes the 6 Dore Masterpieces and has Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress. This ad does not list the presentation editions and thus was from 1892 or later. They are 6.25 x 5. 3. Two 4 sided pamphlets have been seen. They list the same books-The Dore Bible Gallery, Paradise Lost, Dante's Inferno and Dante's Purgatory and Paradise. They both note the presentation editions. There are two differences: at the top of each page one says- NEW EDITION whereas the other states-ALTEMUS' EDITION. The other difference is that the extra fine English Cloth books are priced at $4.00 in the former ads and $6.00 in the latter ads. Although one would assume that the higher price would signify a later date, there are no advertisements that ever showed the English Cloth book listed at $6.00. Thus, the ads can be assumed to be early in the publication history of these books but they cannot be dated precisely. Examples of pages are shown below. 4. One advertising flyer has been seen that has 8 panels. It includes all 7 of the Dore Masterpiece Books as well as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Interestingly, the heading at the top of each page says either "new edition" or "Altemus edition". Books #1-4 are listed as Altemus Editions and they have the $6.00 price. Thus this flyer is of the same vintage as the ad #3 above that said Altemus Edition. The ads for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Idylls of the King are identical to the single sheet ads.

Dore Masterpieces

This sheet was found in the book of the same name. This ad is identical to the Altemus catalogue listing except for the last paragraph which is not found in the catalogues. This broadside was used by Altemus from 1889 until the mid 1890s. Similar sheets have been seen for other Altemus Dore illustrated books.

Folly Series

Altemus Advertising Flyer - An advertising sheet announcing the new Caroline Wells' Folly Book, Folly in the Forest has been found. The 7.125 x 3.25 inch flyer announces the Folly book on one side and Frederick Ober's For Prey and Spoils on the verso.

The Folly book was originally part of the two book Folly Series, series #89. Later it was included in the Little Men and Women Series, series #125 which was introduced in 1908.

The Ober book was at first part of Series #60, Boys and Girls Series of New Copyrights. Later it was also included in the Little Men and Women Series.

Both books are included in the bibliography's main section of pictures.

Both the books here were also published in 1902.

It is presumed that since the sheet announces the new publication of Folly in the Forest, that the advertisement dates from the 1901-1902 era. It is also presumed that there are many more of these flyers from this vintage not yet discovered.

Good Times Series

Another advertising flyer has been discovered. It is for Series #100- Good Times Series.

This flyer is 8 x 5.5 which is slightly larger than the page size of the actual Good Time Books. It was discovered within a book from the series.

Jenk's Talking Animal Series

1902 Advertising Flyer found
Within a Diplome L’Honneur Series book a one sheet advertising flyer has been discovered. This series was only published in 1902 and both books advertised on the flyer are also 1902 books.

As pictured below, on one side of the flyer is a picture of the frontispiece from the book Gypsy the Talking Dog by Tudor Jenks. The Jenks’ book was originally part of the two volume Jenks’ Talking Animal Series (Series #111). Later, beginning in 1908, it was part of the Little Men and Women Series (Series #125)

The other side of the flyer advertises Wings and Fetters by Florence Morse Kingsley. This book was part of The Boy’s and Girl’s Series of New Copyrights (Series # 60) published in 1901-1902. Of interest is that the picture seen on the flyer does not appear in the book. This book has an illustration page which lists the four glossy pictures found within. None match the flyer’s picture. A puzzle to be sure.

The flyer is 7.25” x 3.25”.

Magic Wand Series

An advertising flyer for the Magic Wand Series (#129) has been discovered.

This 6 volume collection of books is very special. Tudor Jenks wrote the books and John R. Neill, the Oz illustrator, illustrated them. The Neill pictures have made these books very collectable and much more valuable than many other Altemus published fairy tale books. Of course, this is also true for the Neill illustrated books of the 6 volume Fairy Tale Series (#84) which was published in 1906.

The Magic Wand books are 6” x 4.5” and were published in only one format although some of the books have been seen with different cloth pictorial covers. Brown colored endpapers were noted (see below). The volumes were all priced at 50 cents.

From the Altemus catalogue: "These stories are bright, humorous, and especially clever in text and illustration. They are fresh examples of the author’s delicate flights of fancy."

Printemps Series

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Altemus - Altemus published the works of numerous authors whose works they were not authorized to publish. For the most part these were books not covered by the copyright act. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter was probably the most well known of the Altemus unauthorized books. In fairness however, perhaps the most well known and popular books “pirated” were the 4 books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These were published as part of the Printemps Series.

The Printemps Series was a 25 book series published in its entirety in 1895 and only 1895. The cloth multicolored cover was the same for all this series’ books. It is presumed it was jacketed with a jacket that matched the cover but this has not been verified.

Confirming the scarcity of these books is the fact that the classic bibliography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Green and Gibson only mentions two of the four Doyle books published in the series (The Sign of the Four and Beyond the City). Omitted are A Case of Identity and Other Stories (shown here) and A Study in Scarlet.

These books are without illustrations and are 6.5” x 4.5”.

A Printemps Series advertisement as well as the cover of a Doyle book are seen below

Rose Carnation Series

New Advertising Flyer discovered

This 6 x 3.25 inch one page advertising flyer for the Rose Carnation Series was discovered in the Little Lady Val book (#4). This flyer dates from 1906-1908. It is my belief that Altemus produced flyers for all of their series of this era. They are just very difficult to find.

Shakespeare's Plays

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 ephemera piece.

The Shakespeare Series (#164) was a 39 volume set published from 1899 until Altemus 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.