Henry Altemus Company

Motor Boat Club Series (Series 23)

This September, 1909 ad notes 3 of the 6 Motor Boat Club Series books that were published in 1909. Generally, when a number of books from the same series are copyrighted in the same year, the thought is that they were all released in one group- a breeder set. Looking at the ad below this does not appear to be the case here. The ad mentions the first three books but not the other three that were also copyrighted in 1909. "Others in preparation for early publication". Thus the first three were published before numbers 4-6. Since this ad is from September, the other books must have been published in the last three months of the year. The first three probably were reprinted at that time.

This may be why the jacket without any red color is very rare. That is, the first three books were published first with the "no red color" jacket and shortly thereafter the first six books were published with the later Format 1 dust jacket. See below for the pictures of these jackets.