Henry Altemus Co - Altemus and Alice

Henry Altemus published Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in separate volumes and combined books. Mistakes regarding editions and dates are commonplace. This section will review all of the Altemus Alice's. For more detailed information click on the individual series links.

Of course, Altemus only published reprints of these titles. They were printed as combination books as well as single titles beginning in 1895. These titles appeared in 27 different series as well being published as non-series books. Within the series there are numerous formats and variants. I have seen one Alice in Wonderland book which I am sure is part of a series but which one is not clear. This book is discussed at the end of this article.

A. The ﬁrst Alice books published by Henry Altemus

In 1895 Altemus published the Carroll books for the ﬁrst time. Two combination books (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) were published in two different series. Within Series #167 Standard 12 Mo. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series167.htm) the book was printed in two different formats. One book has crushed levant with a silver decorative pattern on a maroon cover (Other colors have been seen). The other book has a wonderful pictorial cover in silver and inks. These books are 7.5 x 5.5 and probably Altemus' best made Alice books. My opinion notwithstanding, these two books should be the most valuable of all Altemus Carroll's. They are very scarce and are the ﬁrst Altemus combination books. The pictorial cover format is especially unique.

The other early combination book was published in Series #120 The Library of Standard Authors (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series120.htm). This book is identical, except for the cover, with the other 1895 combination book from Series #167. As late as 1897 the Alice book from this series still had 1895 on the base of the title page. Several different color covers have been seen.

Series 167

Series 120

B. Series #202 Young People's Library Books

In 1895 the ﬁrst Altemus Carroll's of the individual titles were published. The two books were part of Series #202 Young People's Library Format 1. The 1895 edition has 1895 at the base of the title page. Books without this date are later editions. As the years went on the Alice's were published in Formats 2-4 of the Young People's Library. These latter books mostly had the copyright of the 1897 edition on the title page and are frequently touted as the very rare ﬁrst Altemus edition. The truth is that they are neither the ﬁrst Altemus edition nor are they rare.

Here is an example of the above. As you can see, the copyright of 1897 is on the title page. Clearly though this is a 1900 or later book because of the Henry Altemus Company imprint.

Format 1 (1895-1898)

Format 2 (1898-1902)

Format 3 (1902-1923)

Format 4 (1923-1933)

Each of the four different formats of the Young People's Library was published during certain years. The formats can easily be distinguished by their spines.

Thus any Alice/ Looking Glass book which is part of the Young People's Library can instantly be dated within a range. Using the ads in the back of the book and looking at the dating rules here: http://henryaltemus.com/ypl/index.htm the exact date can be determined.

The most frequently made error in describing Alice/ Looking Glass books is when 2nd and 3rd Format books are deﬁnitively stated to be rare Altemus 1897 ﬁrst editions. The bottom line however is that these books are not the ﬁrst Altemus editions, not rare, not published in 1897 and certainly not valuable.

Remember (as noted above but reasonably emphasized and repeated) that since Altemus incorporated in 1900, any Format 2 or Format 3 book that has Henry Altemus Company at the base of the title page is from 1900 or later. Thus by deﬁnition no Henry Altemus Company book can be a “first” Altemus edition.

Format 1

Format 2

Format 3

Note that the covers of the Format 2 and 3 books are very similar. Thus the cover may not help you distinguish an 1898 Format 2 book from a 1920 Format 3 book. The spine and the ads must be studied to date these books.

Format 4

C. Other Alice's with copyrights of 1897 but published much later.

There are several other Alice's that have the 1897 copyrights but were published much later. Frequently these books are advertised as being 1897 Altemus ﬁrst editions but clearly they are not.

Series 57: Boys and Girls' Classics (new). This series of ﬁfteen books was published between 1908 and 1926. Confusion about these books exists because these volumes' interiors are identical to the Young People's Library Format 2 books (including the title page that says Young People's Library). Thus not only are the books misidentiﬁed as to date but also as to series.

The covers are made from a number of different linen swatches. Some examples are below. For all possible pictures see http://henryaltemus.com/series/series57.htm

Series #200. The Young Folks' Quarto Series and its successor Series #64. Children's Gift Series both list the copyright as 1897. Series #200 was published in 1912 and Series #64 was published between 1913 and 1920. The Alice/ Looking Glass books of both series are the same. They are large (8.5 x 6.5) and each page has light blue decorative illustrations surrounding the text. See http://henryaltemus.com/series/series200.htm for more details.

Format 1

Format 2

D. The Publisher's Series.

Altemus published numerous series which consisted of reprints of literature, poetry, essays, etc. What distinguished one series from another was the beautifully decorated covers. Some had ﬁne woven silk, some had embossed designs in gilt while others had appliques of beautiful European paintings. Alice and Through the Looking Glass were published as part of a number of these series.

Generally the decorative cover changed each year for each series. In addition the basic cover pattern in some of the series might contain up to 40 plus different applique pictures or 16 different ﬂoral patterns and have a number of background colors.

For more on the publisher's series see: http://henryaltemus.com/publishers/index.htm

#48 Beauxarts Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series48.htm)

1899-1901

1902

#115 La Belle Fleur Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series115.htm)

1901

#118 L'Art Nouveau Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series118.htm)

1901

#130 Marqueterie Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series130.htm)

#143 Petit Trianon Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series143.htm)

1899	1899-1900	1901-1902	1901-1902 Mucha

1903-1904	1905-1906	1907	1908-1909

#158 Riviere Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series158.htm)
The Riviere Series book is a combination book which includes Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

1901

1902

#163 Sanspareil Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series163.htm)

1899

#180 Vademecum Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series180.htm)

1899	1900	1901	1901a

1902	1903	1904	1905-1906

1907	1908	1909-1912	1912-1913

1912-1913	1915	1917	1920s

E. Other Miscellaneous Series

The Alice/ Looking Glass books were part of a number of other series. In this section I will brieﬂy review these books.

Series #58 Boys and Girls Classics (Old). (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series58.htm)

This series of 40 books was published between 1899-1906. A similar format was used for Series #59 Boys and Girls Own Library, a 39 volume series published in 1909-1910. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series59.htm)

Series #87 Favorite Series for Young People. This series of 19 books was published between 1900-1910. The Alice book has the copyright of 1896 while the Through the Looking Glass book has an 1897 copyright.

The Format 2 books in this series have covers identical to those found in the Young Peoples Library (Series #202). The title pages however identify the series as the “Favorite Series”. Pictured below are the Format 1 books. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series87.htm)

Series #82 Ever New Books for Young People. This sixteen volume series was published in 1915 and is quite scarce. The covers of the books are the same as those of Series #202 Young People's Library except this series' books are slightly larger accommodating the decorative pattern seen at the bottom of the cover. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series82.htm)

Series #186 Wee Books for Wee Folks. These small (5.5 x 4.5) books are from one of the most popular Altemus series. This series consisted of tales for toddlers. Books such as Peter Rabbit, Three Little Pigs and Little Black Sambo are seen here. The text is found on one page with a nice color pictorial picture opposite the text. Alice in Wonderland was first published in 1926. Through the Looking Glass was published in the same year. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series186.htm)

1928-1929

Series #125 Little Men and Women Series. This series of 25 books was published between 1907 and 1925. The Alice book is a combination book including Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. During the course of this series the cover picture of the Alice book never changed but the colors on the cover did. See below. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series125.htm)

F. Non Series Books In 1916 a large (11.25 x 8.5) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland book was published. This book with the applique picture on the cover is quite scarce. The earlier of this format's book had illustrated endpapers while the later books had plain endpapers.

Two combination books with both stories were published in 1915. These are also somewhat scarce and are shown below.



	Dust Jacket- earlier	Dust Jacket- later