Q: Hello, I have recently acquired a book by Edgar Alan Poe / Weird Tales that has little to know information on which addition copy from which it was produced the copyright is 1895 and there is no further information… I have not seen any hard covered print design from Altemus like this one.. Attached are two photos of the cover of the book.. If you could give me some insight into which addition this may be and what this copy may or may not be worth on the market I would surely appreciate your professional opinion..

A: Your 1895 book was published as part of the Vademecum Series. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series179.htm). As you can see this cover format came in numerous colors.

Although this is a very common Altemus title of Poe reprints, for some reason it frequently sells for more than you would think. I have seen it sell for between $10-75. I cannot explain the wide range-perhaps different sellers see it at different times.

Q: Hello, I am trying to find out any information you may have on this book “Little Lambie Lambkin” it was published by the Henry Altemus Company in 1921. Is this a first edition? and anything else you may be able to tell me. Thank you in advance for your help.

A: Your book is part of the eight volume Little Bunnie Bunniekin Series.

In order to determine what year your book was published in you can look at the endpapers and the advertisements. Look at the bottom book in a list of the ads and then go to the website and put in the name of that book. By doing that you should be able to determine the earliest the book could have been published.

http://henryaltemus.com/series/series124.htmand http://henryaltemus.com/wee_books/index.htm

Q: I got your contact information from the Internet (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Book-Collecting-3231/2009/7/Altemus-Black-Beauty.htm). Can you tell me anything about the attached edition of Black Beauty?

Thank you for your time.

A: Information about your book can be found here: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series58.htm. It is part of the Boys and Girls Classics Series. This series of forty reprints can be found with and without the gold decorative gilt pattern seen on your book cover. On the series page you can see how to date your book by checking the ads in the back of the book. It was published between 1899 and 1902.

It is a reprint and has only nominal value.

Q: Hi, I was going through some of my grandmothers hand me downs and came across this book (The Story of Little Black Sambo). I have been searching the internet but cannot seem to locate this particular book.

Can you please provide me with some detail on it? Is it rare? With all the Black Sambo books I’ve found I cant imagine it would be but I am interested in some detail on this book and why I cant find it on the internet?

Thank you for your time.

A: Altemus published this book in 1931 and later David Mckay did a reprint edition of this exact book. You can find this book on this website here: Juvenile Quartos Series.

It is quite uncommon because Altemus stopped publishing books in 1932 so your book was only in print for a short time. I trust your book is the oversized format at about 7 x 9.

Although it is not a first edition, it is still quite a nice book.

Henry Altemus published Bibles on its imprint from the 1870’s to the 1890’s. As of this time I have seen 59 different covers.

The Bibles themselves ranged from rather plain editions without any extras to deluxe editions with dictionaries, cyclopedias, notes and commentary, Dore illustrations, etc.

I am adding to the database today Bible number B58. This Bible which was published in 1892 was a member of the “Cheap Pictorial” Editions.

See also: http://henryaltemus.com/bibles/bibles.htm

Today a new variant cover is being added of this title for the Format 3 Young People’s Library. As I have noted before, most of the books of this series have been seen with more than one cover format or with changes in title pages/illustrations. The Child’s Garden of Verses has now been seen with 4 different covers. Since the Format 3 books of the Young People’s Library were published from 1902-1923 this really is not that unexpected. The new book has a paste-on (applique) cover. Based on the ads it was published between 1914 and 1919.

Here are the other four variants

This book is the earliest Format 3 book discovered so far.
The ads indicate a 1904-1906 book. I have not seen a 1902-1904 book as of yet.

The second earliest book is this one. It is a 1907-1908 book.

The next book was published after 1911 (It lists only Three Automobile Girl’s books.)

Interestingly two different interiors have been noted with this cover. One has a black and white frontispiece -like the other early books whereas the later book has a colored frontispiece like the later “applique” book.

Earlier

Later

The latest format seen has the paste-on (applique) cover. It was published between 1914-1919.