Q: Hello, I would like some information about my copy of the book, Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson (picture below and attached). It was published by the Henry Altemus Company, Philadelphia, but no date is given. The cover is green cloth with elaborate embossed designs that may once have been gilded. The picture on the cover is faded, but may have been a pirate ship. The dedication is to S.L.O. and the book has 271 pages plus a list of other books available from the publisher. The size is 4 1/4″ x 6 1/4″. The spine is embossed with Treasure Island at the top and Altemus at the bottom. This book is similar to another copy of Treasure Island that I’ve seen which is from the Vademecum series, but the cover is different.

Any information you can give me about this book would be greatly appreciated.

A: Your book is part of the Vademecum Series. This series is a multivolume, multiauthored series of numerous reprints ranging from fiction to poetry.

It was published between 1909 and 1912. See: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series180.htm.

It originally came in a red box. The box is pictured on the website.

Witchery Ways written by Amos R. Wells is one of 22 books in this series of children’s stories. (See http://henryaltemus.com/series/series56.htm)Today I am adding a variant cover to the data base. The covers differ only in their colors. One book has orange lettering with orange flowers. The other book has yellow lettering and yellow flowers. The cover was done by the “Decorative Designers”.

The internal illustrations were drawn by L. J. Bridgman.

The books are identical except for the cover colors and no priority can be established.

Very interesting is that both are inscribed by the author, one on January 26, 1905 and the other Christmas 1904.

Amos R. Wells (1862-1933) was born in Glen Falls, New York. He graduated from Antioch College in 1883. Early on he was a professor of Greek and Geology at Antioch. Later he was an important advocate and a world leader of the Christian Endeavor movement. He was a great believer in temperance. He published The Golden Rule and Christian Endeavor World. He wrote more than one hundred books.

Today I am adding another dust jacket variant (Format 2- Earlier). In the second format of this juvenile series the jackets are white and coated. This is compared to the first format jackets which are brown, uncoated and usually brittle.

In this series (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series33.htm) the later first format jacket is the same as the earlier Format 2 jacket except for the jacket paper. The later Format 2 dust jacket is multicolored and has the logo for the series on the spine.

This pattern is similar for most all of the juvenile series books.

Format 1 Dust Jacket-Later

Format 2-Dust Jacket -earlier

Format 2-Dust Jacket-later

The Reveries of a Bachelor written by Donald Mitchell (pseudonym is IK Marvel) was reprinted by Altemus in numerous series and in hundreds of formats. This book is very common and can be found for sale frequently on the book search services and Ebay. From time to time an optimistic seller notes that the book is inscribed by the author.

Today on ABE there are 45 copies of this title published by Altemus. They range in price from $4.22 to $125. Of these, two of the more expensive books ($80 and $125 ) say signed and inscribed by the author. There are seven “Reveries” on sale on Ebay today

Well bad news for all those hopeful sellers. The author’s inscription is a facsimile. Every Altemus “Reveries” that I have seen has the same exact inscription. It is shown below. The rarer book would be the one without the facsimile inscription.

For information on Donald Mitchell – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Grant_Mitchell

Q: I bought this book (The Lady of the Lake) at a yardsale. I wasn’t having much luck looking it up til I found your site. However, I did not find this exact combination (color and cover painting). The book has an extra page inserted that doesn’t seem to go to this book ??? It also has some kind of a silver colored paper cut out embossed sticker looking thing with an image of a chariot on it. Do you know what it is? I will attempt to send photos.

A: Your book has the 1901 cover from the Vademecum Series. http://henryaltemus.com/vademecum.htm. Each year the of this series changed. Every cover came in a number of different covers.

In the 1901 books more than 40 different potential pictures exist. If you look at the pictures on the URL above, yours is #35. Each color cover can be seen with any picture. So there are 100’s of different combinations for each year that these pictures were used -none rarer or more valuable than any other.

I have no idea what the sticker is. Sorry.