Henry Altemus Company

Young People's Library

Ebay description:  BATTLES of the CIVIL WAR FOR THE UNION- 1st Ed H/B 1879
80 DRAWINGS OF MEN & BATTLE SITES, NO RESERVE

THE BATTLES of the WAR FOR THE UNION, by Prescott Holmes, published by Henry Altemus Co., Philadelphia, 1897, a first edition. Altemus Young People’s Library. The story of the Great Civil War, from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Surrender at Appomattox, impartially told. Hard cover with 80 illustrations, 338 pages plus 16pp of a catalog of Altemus titles.

The Reality:  This book is a format 3 Young People's Library book published in 1902 or later. Without seeing the ads in the back of the book I cannot be certain when between 1902 and the teens it was published. The first Altemus edition of this book was published in 1897 as part of Series #120- The Library of Standard Authors. The format of that book is seen below.

As is frequently the case, the seller not only does not appreciate that Altemus did not publish any reading books earlier than 1890 but he/she also did not realize that the Henry Altemus Company on the title page indicates a post-1900 book.

Young People's Library

Ebay description:  A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES ROBERT L STEVENSON 1902 1 ED

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES, By Robert Louis Stevenson, with one hundred and twenty illustrations, Published by Hary Altemus Company, Philadelphia, 1902.

The Reality:  The first American edition was published by Scribner's in 1885. This is a 3rd format Young People's Library book. Published in 1902 or later.

Young People's Library

Ebay description:  THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE 1900 FIRST EDITION SCARCE!!!

You are looking at a first edition copy of, "The Little Lame Prince" printed in 1900 by, "The Henry Altemus Co.". .

The Reality:  What you are not looking at is a first edition. The first American edition was published in 1875 by Harpers. What you are looking at is a reprint published by Henry Altemus Company.

Young People's Library

Ebay description:  1896 GULLIVERS TRAVELS 1ST EDITION ALTEMUS w 55 ILLUS

This antique hard cover book is titled Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift D.D. with 55 illustrations Henry Altemus Company Philadelphia, copyright date 1896 (no other date is given so I'm guessing this is a first edition?)

The Reality:  This book is a third format Young People's Library book published after 1901. The earliest Altemus Gulliver was published in 1896. But the first edition Gulliver's Travels was published in England in the 1720s.

Young People's Library

Ebay description:  Up for auction is this extremely collectible antique book, Flower Fables, by Louisa M. Alcott. I believe that this is a first edition as there is no indication that it would not be. Title page reads: Altemus' Young People's Library, FLOWER FABLES by LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, "Pondering shadows, colors, clouds, grass-buds, and caterpillar shrouds, boughs on which the wild bees settle, tints that spot the violet's petal" - Emerson's Wood Notes. With thirty-four illustrations, copyright 1898 by Henry Altemus

The Reality:  Really an inexcusable comment about a first edition. The simplest research would tell the seller that the first dated from the 1850s (George W. Briggs 1855). This book at its earliest was published in 1901-02 as part of the third format of the Young People's Library-Format 3.

Young People's Library

Ebay description:  THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS Lewis Carroll (1897) 1st Ed.
The title of this book is Through the Looking Glass And what Alice Found There. It was written in 1897 by Lewis Carroll, and published by the Henry Altemus company of Philadelphia.

The Reality:  There are two blunders in this description. First, based upon the spine this is a Young People's Library ( Series #202) 2nd format book which at its earliest was published in 1898. Much more significant is that the first edition was not printed by Henry Altemus. Rather it was published by Macmillan in 1872. Altemus only did reprints of Lewis Carroll's books.