We locate only five libraries (three in Pittsbugh) reporting ownership of the work.

Provenance: Inscribed to Mrs. John R. McCune by the writer of the volume's biographical sketch of the author, “Frank H. Wade, M.D.,” and his wife.

•  Publisher's white cloth elaborately stamped in gold, all edges gilt; binding and text both remarkably clean and fresh.  (29567)

The caption title reads: “Smith, with a copy of the 'Fugitive Slave Law,' eagerly inquiring the way to Canada.”   The text printed within a wavy border.

WorldCat locates only the copy at the Library Company of Philadelphia, this being its deaccessioned duplicate.

•  Old folds, dust-soiled, other stains. Evidence of old stitching. A decent copy of a rarity.  (38404)

The colophon notes that this text was printed from Bembo, Cleland Initial, and Sistina types on Niddegen paper.

•  Rose wrappers with black lettering on front; spine gently faded. Light pencilling on front endpaper. A simple yet elegant production.  (36075)

•  Publisher's red textured cloth with title and ALL authors' names gilt-lettered on spine; covers double-ruled in blind, gilt circlet surrounding title on front cover, yellow endpapers with printed publisher's advertisements; binding gently rubbed and lightly soiled, spine pulled at top with loss of cloth and text moderately cocked. Marked as above, interior clean.  (36185)

Alice Barber Stephens, an American painter and engraver whose work appeared in Harper's and the Ladies' Home Journal, provides the illustrations, being13 plates throughout the text and a frontispiece (with tissue guard) of Wilkins.

Vol. III of the Ladies' Home Journal Library of Fiction.

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, the signature of Katherine Phinprose(?).

•  Wright, III, 2038.   Publisher's textured green cloth with gilt lettering to spine and front board; lighter green-stamped decoration to front board and spine; fore-edge of pages untrimmed. Extremities rubbed. Small tear of paper on front pastedown; gutter crack at series list and p. 114. A nice little volume combining the work of two prominent women.  (37815)

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal, and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,” and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance” of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli, Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters, each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated:   Bound in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education — both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

•  BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing, Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc., 135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature online.   Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern, spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia and marks of emphasis.  (25806)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   For binding, see: Morris & Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

This is vol. I, no. 12 of the Unity Mission subscription newsletter.

•  Publisher's printed wrappers with the title-page as the front and the final leaf of text as the back wrapper; “no. 32" on front in pencil. A few small specks, interior otherwise clean.  (39394)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel ("AHA”) at rear.

•  Rosenbach, Children's, 596 ([c. 1820]); Shaw & Shoemaker 46904 ([1818?]); Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 203e. This ed. not in Welch.   Publisher's printed paper wrappers with woodcuts, as above; wrappers foxed and leaves age-toned, not distressingly or weakening paper. Very little used, in good shape.  (38483)

•  Sabin 106302n.   Publisher's textured cloth in a brick color, hinges (inside) cracked; ex-library with a bookplate, no stamps. Clipping about this “quaint” dictionary affixed to a blank, with offsetting to endpaper verso opposite; interior clean.  (31960)