Altemus did not always make it easy to date their books. In fact, it can be downright confusing. Here is an example.

Description:
Vtg Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll Book 1897
is from the Altemus Young People’s Library series. I do not know if it is a first edition.

During the publication run of late Format 2 (and early Format 3) of the ubiquitous Young People’s Library (http://henryaltemus.com/ypl/index.htm) Altemus used a title page that noted the copyright date. This title page was used for several other series including the one to which this book belongs to. The only difference between books of the Boys and Girls Classics series and the Young People’s Library is the cover and the box that the book came in. This book is from Series #57-The Boys and Girls Classics Series.

In most instances when a publisher has a date on the title page it indicates the actual date of publication of that book and that is why most sellers get fooled by this Altemus title page date. Upon closer inspection Altemus is telling us when the book has the Altemus copyright. And of course the Altemus copyright is not necessarily the same as the date of publication.

The linen cloth cover seen here is part of a larger swatch of cloth that was used to cover some of the books of this series. http://henryaltemus.com/series/series57.htm
Publication dates were from 1908-1926. This cover was seen between 1908 and the early teens. The books also came boxed.

Jack and the Bean-Stalk is the ninth of ten books in the Wee Folks Cinderella Series #188.

See http://henryaltemus.com/series/series188.htm.

The copyright is 1922.

To determine the date of this book which with the dust jacket is new to the database the first thing to do is look at the ads. As you can see on the reverse of the dust jacket. The last book listed in the Wee Books for Wee Folks list is I Don’t Want to Wear Coats and Things. That book has a 1923 copyright. The Little Bunnie Bunniekin Series says 6 titles- The sixth title, Little Deerie Dear, was published first in 1922. Finally this book has blue end papers which were in the Wee Books from 1923-1926. Thus, most likely this book was a 1923 printing.

Here is a nice little advertising piece (5.875 x 3. 375) for the Belles Lettres Series (#50) http://henryaltemus.com/series/series50.htm

It lists 26 volumes in the series at 30 cents each. Since the first 28 volumes were published in 1896, this dates the flyer to 1896.

As I have noted before, I believe that every Altemus Series and every non series book most likely had an advertising piece associated with it. The difficulty is finding them. This is a nice example.

Many of the Altemus non series books were published in hardcover cloth as well as suede. This was especially true in the 1905-1920 range. Here is an example for Non Series Book #1.

These suede books are much scarcer than the cloth books because of their innate fragility.

Most of the Good Times Series books had more than one printing. Here is an example. The earlier publication of Volume 2 in this series had white lettering whereas the later printing has green lettering. The text of the book is identical between the formats.