This title was first published by Henry Altemus in 1897. The first editions have gold gilt lettering. The cover colors on the first editions can vary. The later 1897 books as well as the 1898 books are identical to the first editions except that they have silver gilt lettering on their covers.

Here is a new to the database later 1897 edition. The first edition with the gold gilt lettering is also shown.

1897 Later

1897 First Edition

What Women Should Know by Mrs. E. B. Duffey was originally published in 1873 by the Philadelphia publisher J. M. Stoddart. The Fireside Publishing Company, another Philadelphia publisher, and Fowler and Wells also reprinted this book.

The first Altemus edition was published in 1893. I am adding this book’s cover picture to the database today. It is the 1895 publication of this title.
See http://henryaltemus.com/images/NS_145.htm for pictures of other editions.

In Format 5 books of this series (Dore’s Masterpieces) the left third of the front cover has a stereotyped decorative pattern. The right half has one of a number of background colors with the title and illustrator printed in gilt.

Today I am adding a new cover for Format 5, Book #4. This cover with other examples of this format are shown here.

In the last blog entry I showed several 1892 Non-Series Scarlet Letter’s. Hawthorne’s book was reprinted by Altemus in numerous series and formats. The earliest 1892 editions did not reprint the “Preface to the Second Edition” which is dated March 30, 1850. All later reprints of this title did include the “Preface to the Second Edition”.

Unfortunately many booksellers erroneously believe that these reprinted editions are either the real second edition and/or their copy of the book is from 1850. Now I know many readers are saying that this statement is an exaggeration and there is no way a reputable dealer would make this error.

Well, excluding the 1892 books which did not have the preface there are 12 Scarlet Letter’s published by Altemus presently listed on the ABE book search site. (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry). Five of those sellers state that their book is a second edition. One actually notes 1850 as the publication date. That is over 40%.

I think it is fairly common to not realize that the reprint publishers of the 1880’s – early 1900’s often republished titles in toto and editions and dates within the book may not be accurate in terms of date and edition.

In 1892 Henry Altemus published three non series books with this title (http://henryaltemus.com/images/NS_124.htm) and one Scarlet Letter in a series-Altemus Library- http://henryaltemus.com/series/series37.htm.

Today I am adding a new Non Series book. The new book, green and white, has the more detailed cameo portrait in the center of the front cover. Also it has gold gilt top edges. The other two books have plain edges. They are pictured below.

New

The Favorite Series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series87.htm) is a nineteen book series of juvenile fiction that was published between 1900 and 1910 in two different formats. Today I am adding a variant (color) cover picture to the database for a Format 1 book. This book is Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. At first glance the newly added red book looks the same (except for the color) as the beige book. The interiors of the books are identical.

But if you look closely the appliques are not quite the same. The paste-ons have been cut out such that the borders of the pictures are slightly different. I had always thought that these pictures were machine cut and therefore should be identical. This does not appear to be the case.

Today I am adding a new book cover for the Mother Stories Series. The book cover added has the lighter blue color on the cover. This book is the newer Format 1 book.

Here are a couple of ways to distinguish earlier from later books.

On the copyright page the earlier books have 50 cents for the book price, not $1.00.
Also the post-1922 books say “Printed in the United States of America”. The pre-1922 books do not have this line.

See below for examples.

As I have noted before, I believe that every book Altemus published came originally with a dust jacket or within a labeled box. Of course, since I do not have an example for absolutely every book, this statement is still just conjecture. But little by little I am finding more boxes and dust jackets.

Here is a new dust jacket example for the database. Shown below is a dust jacket for book #2 of the two book Frank Schell Ballentine Series. (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series90.htm). As is frequently the case, the jacket’s cover matches the book’s cover.

Q: Hello. My friend bought this book for me the other day. I am not looking to sell it as I am a huge Alice in Wonderland collector, but I am wondering what kind of value (if any) there is behind it. I really don’t know anything about it, sorry I am not of much help. The inside says Henry Altemus, copyright 1899. Please let me know any information you have on it.

A: Your book is part of the Vademecum Series and was published in 1899. See http://henryaltemus.com/series/series180.htm>
This series consisted of reprints of various works of fiction, essays, poetry, etc.

Most of the books in this series have only have nominal value. If a book has its original labeled box with it, it would be worth a bit more. Perhaps this book is slightly more valuable because of the volume of “Alice” collectors. Certainly still a very inexpensive book.

Here is a variant cover and spine. This cover is different from the other Emblematic English cloth books with the same title. This cover has Gustave Dore’s name in gold gilt as opposed to silver gilt. The spine is also different. Here is the newly shown book with another book of the same title.