Bibliophemera

Laughter provided by Theodore R. Ernst. The industrialist was H.M Quackenbush. The Great Depression was underway after the recent stock market crash of 1929. A good laugh was probably welcome. The author of this letter and publisher of the Laughter books was the impetus for this blog post when I acquired the letter, but he quickly fizzled out in research as someone of importance or general interest for the theme of this blog. The industrialist who ordered 50 books had the more interesting claim, with much information available on his life, though any ties to the book trades appear limited to being a buyer of books. But let's start with him. Henry Marcus Quackenbush (1847–1933) was an American inventor and industrialist who founded the H.M. Quackenbush Company in Herkimer, New York, in 1871. This letter addressed to Mr. Quackenbush in 1929 confirms he was still running his company, or at least had a hand in it, nearly 60 years after he founded it. He appears to have gotten his bu...

  The Protective Association for Publishers and Booksellers was established in New York in 1888 in an attempt to help protect copyrights and enable publishers and authors to keep more of the profits. Regional publishers such as A.M. Thayer, were early pioneers in this effort. Authors such as Mark Twain were paid in royalties tied to the subscription orders. Twain, through his financially backed publishing company, Charles L. Webster & Company, also earned income this way from the publication of Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.    A number of publishers used a network of subscription agents to secure orders that they'd take back to the publisher for fulfillment. They were contractually forbidden to sell to retail stores, which in turn would undercut the subscription prices that were generally two to three times higher than similar publications in retail stores. The agents at times wound up with overstock and the temptation was too much to make a buck. Add the piracy i...

A relic now of the pen and ink era, ink blotters fell by the wayside as ballpoint pens gained popularity in the 1950s and all but erased the need for an ink blotter. The ballpoint pen has suffered to some extent a similar fate in the digital world of today where much of our communication is done via texting, messaging, or emailing.  Ink blotters existed to do just that - blot ink on a handwritten piece to keep it from smearing, courtesy of an absorbent paper. For heavier stock paper blotters, such as this one printed on Wrenn's Porcelain Blotting--120-lb Light Buff, one side blotted while the other side advertised. Advertising blotters came about in late 1800s and had a good run to about mid-twentieth century. Union City, New Jersey printer, Herbert Grossman, used this ink blotter for advertising his business in 1932. They were giveaways to anyone who walked in the doors or ordered products through the mail. It seems a rather appropriate medium for a tradesman who dealt with ink on...

Here is an interesting cover with a nice advertising cameo in the upper-left corner for Chicago publisher S.C. Griggs and Co. As a bonus, the addressee, with a little research, provides additional interesting book-related history. Founder Samuel C. Griggs (1819–1897) started the business in Chicago in 1844 as W.W. Barlow & Co. and a few years later became S.C. Griggs & Co. The publishing concern grew into a major distributor of literature and educational texts in the Midwest and Western states. Tragedy struck twice with devastating fires that wiped out their inventory in 1868 and again in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. No doubt, the second fire factored in Griggs’ decision to sell his share of the company to Jansen, McClurg & Co. the next year. That firm evolved into the well-known A.C. McClurg & Co. The Griggs cameo on the cover helps with dating the cover. As the postmark is illegible, the cover was posted prior to 1872, the year Griggs sold his company. Notation...

This billhead offers insight into how issues were dealt with between buyer and seller in the late 19 th century.  J.B. Lippincott & Co., the Philadelphia publisher and bookseller, received an order from J. King McLanahan of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania and shipped what they had along with this billhead containing confusing notation to the customer. Mr. McLanahan evidently sent it back with a question written on the billhead about what they meant regarding the missing book in his order, likely a recent book about Pope and his poetry in the Lansdowne Poetry Series of the 1870s. Lippincott responded that they were out of the book in Morocco binding, but it was presently being bound as ordered. Each communication moved with a pace at the mercy of local post offices in the US Postal System. This back-and-forth about a book that wasn't available for shipping must have taken days if not weeks to clear up. Something that today could be handled with a couple of quick emails in min...

  An elephant in a book shop? And of course it's reading a book. This image accompanies a fable by John Gay (1685-1732) for the book, Fables by the Late Mr. Gay, (London, Hitch, Hawk & Tonson). The 3.5 X 5.25-inch copperplate engraving was created for the publication by an artist known only as Wilson after the original illustration by William Kent. It depicts an Indian elephant and a bookseller in a well-appointed book shop. The elephant reads a book positioned on a lectern as the bookseller turns the pages. Below is the fable: The Elephant and the Bookseller Fable X     The man who, with undaunted toils,     Sails unknown seas to unknown soils,     With various wonders feasts his sight:     What stranger wonders does he write!     We read, and in description view     Creatures which Adam never knew:     For, when we risk no contradiction, ...