Series #202- Young People’s Library (http://henryaltemus.com/ypl/index.htm)

The books of the Young People’s Library were among the most popular of all the Altemus books. A number of titles were published in all four formats. Generally these books went through a number of changes as the years went by. Today I am adding a new Format 3 dust jacket picture to the data base for A Child’s Story of the Bible. ( See: http://henryaltemus.com/series/series202F3.htm)

Interestingly, this title went through numerous changes, both subtle and obvious during its publication in the four formats of the Young People’s Library. I thought it might be of interest to review the evolution of the Altemus printings of this book.

This title was first published in 1895 as a Format 1-Young People’s Library book. Although the number of pages differs between the various formats, the content was unchanged. The page differential was caused by page and font size differences.

Different formats have different illustrations. The Format 1 and Format 2 book have the most illustrations (72) but they are mainly black and white line drawn. Format 2 has a colored frontispiece on glossy paper which the Format 1 book does not have.

The Format 3 books until the late teens have 4 color illustrations in addition to 72 black and white line drawn pictures. The black and white pictures are more simplistic than those of the earlier formats. (See below for an example.) The later Format 3 and the Format 4 books have fewer black and white illustrations and only one color picture (frontispiece).

Format 1	Format 2-Earlier	Format 2-Later
Format 3-Earliest Dust Jacket	Format 3-Dust Jacket-later	Format 3-Latest (White coated)

Note the differences between these two books are the color of the cover and the coloration of parts of the man’s torso.

Format 3-earlier cover

Format 3-later cover

Format 4-Dust jacket

Note these black and white line drawn illustrations. The one to the left is the one found in the earlier books whereas the one on the right is found in the later books.
It is clear that the earlier illustration is a much higher quality picture.