Henry Altemus Company - Mother Stories Series 132

Series Name:
Publish Dates:
Topic:

Mother Stories Series
1908 - 1909
Children's stories

Series Number:
Volumes:
Formats:

132
10
1

	Title:	Author:	Year:	Illustrator:
1	Mother Stories	Anonymous	1908	Multiple
2	Mother Nursery Rhymes and Tales	Anonymous	1908	Multiple
3	Mother Fairy Tales	Anonymous	1908	Multiple
4	Mother Nature Stories	Anonymous	1908	Multiple
5	Mother Stories From the Old Testament	Anonymous	1908	Multiple
6	Mother Stories From the New Testament	Anonymous	1908	Multiple
7	Mother Bedtime Stories	Anonymous	1909	Multiple
8	Mother Animal Stories	Piper, W.	1909	Multiple
9	Mother Bird Stories	O'Donnell, William F.	1909	Multiple
10	Mother Santa Claus Stories	O'Donnell, William F.	1909	Multiple
11	Mother Stories from American History
12	Mother Stories from Dickens

Henry Altemus Company Format: 1 Volumes: 1 - 10
Tan, blue, yellow and green cloth have been seen. Rectangular line drawn book appropriate picture on the front cover. Book title is above and a description of the book is below the cover illustration. The earliest dust jacket has the title of the series and book in a rectangle. In the center of the front of the dust jacket is a description of the book which every title has on its front cover. Later jackets match the cover of the book and also have the written description of the book at the jacket's bottom. 8.75 x 6.75

Henry Altemus Company Format: 2 Volumes: 1 - 10
Tan, yellow and green cloths have been seen. Rectangular pictorial multi colored book appropriate applique (paste-on) is on the front cover. Book title is above and a description of the book is below the cover illustration. Dust jackets match the cover of the book and also have the written description of the book at the jacket's bottom. 8.75 x 6.75

Series Notes:
1. The first editions of the first six books list the first six titles in the ads in the front of the book and the back of the dust jacket.
2. Books #11 and #12 are phantom titles. See below for more information.
3. Books #2, 8 and 10 have Louis Wain illustrations.
4. The later #10 omits the author's name on the title page.
5. These books were reprinted until the mid 1920's.
6. Regarding the frontispieces of this series: As of this date, ten different frontispieces have been noted for eight of the books. Some of the titles have been found with several different frontispieces. Several of the frontispieces have been seen in more than one book. There does not appear to be any relationship between which frontispiece is present on a book and when the book was published. As more and more books are seen, it may be discovered that the frontispiece placement was totally random.

It appears to my non artist trained eye that most of the pictures were drawn by the same artist.

Books number 5 and 6 (the Testament books) have a never changing frontispiece.

Below are pictures of all ten frontispieces and which books they have been found in. Volume 1 has three different frontispieces. Volume 3- three different ones. Volume 4 has two different ones.

A- On a Summer Afternoon- Volumes 1, 3
B- At the Pantomime- Volumes 1, 2
C- Our Newest Navy- Volume 1
D- Attention Company- Volume 3
E- Bread and Milk- Volume 8
F- Getting Ready for a Walk- Volume 3
G- Feeding the Ducks- Volumes 4, 8
H- Who's Afraid- Volumes 4, 9
I- Playing at Shadows- Volume 7
J- Christmas Morning- Volume 10
K- The Pet Pony- Volume 8

Determining the edition of the books:

1. The first editions of the first six books (1908 editions) only list six books in the front ads.
2. The second printing of the first six titles and the first printing of titles #7-10 list all ten books at 50 cents in both the front and the back ads. The dust jacket is brown and uncoated. (pre-1915).
3. The third printing is the same as #2 but the dust jacket is white and coated.
4. A variant of this edition has green lettering on the dust jacket reverse.
5. The fourth printing has 50 cent ads in the front of the book but $1.00 ads on the reverse of the dust jacket.
6. The fifth printing of the First Edition lists $1.00 in the front ads and does says "Printed in the United States of America" at the bottom of the copyright / ad page. This indicates a post-1922 publication.
7. The second edition has paste-on pictures on the front cover with new pictorial book appropriate illustrations. On the bottom of the copyright page it says "printed in the United States of America". (This indicates a post-1922 printing.) Two formats of this later edition exist. The earlier one has $1.00 as the price listed on the back of the dust jacket. The later book has no price listed.
8. The first editions and the earliest editions are noted to have the title of the book on the spine read from bottom to top.

Some newer dust jackets with the pictorial illustrations are occasionally matched with books that have the earlier line drawn pictures.

Phantom titles of this series

Series #132 the Mother Stories Series has 10 books. They were published in 1908 and 1909. The catalogues only note 10 books and the reverse of the later dust jackets of the series also only mention 10 books.
In certain Young People's Library Format 3 books published in 1910 an advertisement for the Mother Stories Series lists 12 books. Books #11 and #12 are phantom titles.

#11 is listed as Mother Stories from American History and #12 as Mother Stories from Dickens. Of interest is that the latter two books are the only ones listed without the illustration numbers, which is a good indicator that the books were never published. These two titles are phantom titles.

Below is a copy of the advertisement.

Advertisement

1st Edition Dust Jacket	1st Ed. DJ Reverse	DJ Reverse (2nd type pre-1915)	DJ Reverse (2nd type Post 1915)

DJ Reverse (3rd type)	DJ Reverse (4th type)	Format 1 #1 First Edition	Format 1 #1 Dust Jacket (late)

Format 1 #1 (late)	Format 1 #1 Later	Format 1 #2	Format 1 #3 Dust Jacket

Format 1 #3 First Edition	Format 1 #3 (later)	Format 1 #4 Dust Jacket	Format 1 #4 First Edition

Format 1 #4 DJ (1st Edition)	Format 1 #4 1st Edition (variant)	Format 1 #4 (later)	Format 1 #4 (variant)

Format 1 #5 DJ (earlier)	Format 1 #5 DJ (later)	Format 1 #5 (earliest)	Format 1 #5 (early)

Format 1 #5 (variant)	Format 1 #6 Dust Jacket	Format 1 #6 First Edition	Format 1 #6 First Edition

Format 1 #6 Early	Format 1 #6 Later	Format 1 #6 Later	Format 1 #6 Latest

Format 1 #7 DJ (earlier)	Format 1 #7 DJ (later)	Format 1 #7	Format 1 #7 variant

Format 1 #8	Format 1 #8 DJ variant	Format 1 #8 variant	Format 1 #8 variant

Format 1 #9 earlier	Format 1 #9 Dust Jacket	Format 1 #9 later	Format 1 #10 earlier

Format 1 #10 later	Format 1 #10 latest	Format 1 #10 variant	Format 2 #2

Format 2 #3	Format 2 #5 Dust Jacket	Format 2 #5	Format 2 #6

Format 2 #7 Dust Jacket	Format 2 #8 DJ-Later	Format 2 #9 Dust Jacket

A	B	C	D

E	F	G	H

I	J	K