Q: What can you tell me about this book? A Christmas Carol

A: Your book was published in 1905-1906 as part of the Vademecum Series. It is a reprint which originally came with a labeled box. It only has nominal value.

Q: I recently came across this book (Paradise Lost) and Paradise Regained and was trying to double check my research and find out the dates on them. Thank you for any assistance.

A: Your book was published in 1908-1909 as part of the Petit Trianon Series. It is a reprint and originally came in a labeled box.

Because it is a very common title, a reprint without an original has little, if any, value.

Q: Do you know what this book’s value might be? Last Essays of Elia

Is it part of the Petit Trianon Series? It has an inscription from 1898. But, it has no publication date.

A: Your book was published in 1897 as part of the Petit Trianon Series.

It is a common reprint. It originally came within a labeled box. It has only nominal value.

Q: I have been studying your website and wondered if you could tell me what you think the value is of the attached book (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). From what I gather from your site, this is format 2, printed prior to 1900 because the copyright page (see next photo) says Frank Altemus, not Frank Altemus Company.

The spine is in tact, and the interior pages are in very good condition. I have seen 3 spots with pencil in the interior, which might be able to be erased. there is also what looks to be green crayon over the left heart on the cover.

The first few interior pages are slightly loose, but from other copies I’ve seen online, this is in reasonably good condition for the time period.

Thank you!

A: This is a 2nd Format Young People’s Library book published in 1898-1899.

The earlier (pre-1900) Young People’s Library books are less common but that does not necessarily make them very valuable.

This book generally sells between $10-75 although it is frequently listed for a lot more. Easy to buy but hard to sell.

(Of note is that this reader promptly listed this book for sale on Ebay at $299. Suffice it to say, it did not sell. Even with a pristine dust jacket it is not worth close to her listing price)

Q: I’m trying find origin this book (The Sleeping Beauty and Other Stories). Can you help me?

A: Your book is part of the Mother Goose Series.

It is part of Format 2 of that series and was published in the early 1900’s. Originally it came with a dust jacket.

I am not sure what you mean by its origin. The Altemus edition is taken from previously published stories.

Henry Altemus Company published the first hard cover edition of this title in 1904 in Series #56 Boys and Girls Booklover’s Series. In 1907 it was published within Series #61 Cherrycroft Series.
This little (6.5 x 4.5) book has 157 pages and six illustrations.

Interestingly although Altemus published the first hardcover edition, the story was first published in 1900 in the Youth’s Companion. All six chapters were published between October 11, 1900 and November 15, 1900. In addition all the illustrations in the Altemus book were originally published in the Youth’s Companion.

The author, Eva Wilder (McGlasson) Brodhead (1870-1915) died at the age of 45 in Denver, Colorado. She was a native of Covington, Kentucky. Her first novel was Diana’s Livery published in 1891. She wrote a number of novels as well as more than fifty stories for periodicals. Her novels were published under her McGlasson maiden name as well as her Brodhead married name. She married Henry C. Brodhead an engineer from Pennsylvania on December 5, 1894. She lived her later years in Denver which was not far from Brodhead, Colorado which was a town named after her husband (because of his geological discoveries). In 1906 she came down with a serious (but unknown to me) illness. Whether this was the same illness that led to her demise at the early age of 45, nine years later, is unknown.