Bibliophemera

1890 marked a turning point for publisher-bookseller Funk & Wagnalls , who since their founding in 1875 had been selling religious books. The letter below, on company letterhead, is dated May 21, 1890 and provides evidence that a shift in business models is underway.  The letter indicates they are now offering The Encyclopedia Britannica  in cloth ($38) or library sheep binding ($58), as well as the Cyclopedia of Quotations . They have had a good response to the Britannica  offering and expect to start shipping the next month, June 1890. Their Standard Dictionary of the English Language would come out in 1894 and their own encyclopedia set, The Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia , wouldn't be published until 1912. That set is no longer offered in a printed version, a casualty of the Internet game-changing 1990s. But you can still buy their dictionary... at Britannica .com ! Funk & Wagnalls enjoyed various levels of success well into t...