The publishing houses and booksellers advertised in the weekly newspapers and magazines, in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. In the advertisement below, the publishers Pudney & Russell advertised in The National Defender, in 1858, of their recently published work, Records of the Revolutionary War. In the “Preface,” the author, W. T. R. Saffell, acknowledged his work was to help many of the soldiers and their descendants who sought confirmation of their military service, in that war, to apply for federal payments, to the veteran, their widows and heirs, of either a War Pensions or Bounty-Land Warrants.
Records of Revolutionary Wars National Defender, v. II, no. 43, Tuesday, June 8, 1858, Whole Number: 95, p. [4] col. 7.
Literary Depot National Defender, v. I, no. 4, Tuesday, September 2, 1856, [Whole Number: 4], p. [3] col. 6.
The above advertisement, from the Literary Depot, in Norristown, PA, offered a “pre-sale,” in August, for the title Arctic Explorations, by Dr. Kane, available in September, 1856.
American explorer Dr. Elisha Kane, the commander of the Second Grinnell Expedition, which was financed by American philanthropist Henry Grinnell, in search of British Naval explorer, Sir John Franklin, and his crew, lost in the 1845 exploration for the Northwest Passage, submitted an official report to the Secretary of Navy, John P. Kennedy, according to The New York Times on October 16, 1855. The expedition was unsuccessful in discovering Sir Franklin or his crew; Kane was credited with a new record in reaching the farthest northern point unexplored and the scientific information gathered.
The National Defender advertised, in its first of September issue, the sale of the Arctic Explorations, by Dr. Kane and available from J. K. Moore, of the Literary Depot. In May, 1857, Mr. Moore advertised, in The National Defender, he had a second-hand copy of the work for sale “due to certain circumstance, the subscriber decided to sell…”
Dr. Kane's Arctic Exploration National Defender, v. I, no. 4, Tuesday, September 2, 1856, [Whole Number: 4], p. [4] col. 6.
Dr. Kane's Arctic Exploration National Defender, v. I, no. 42, Tuesday, May 26, 1857, [Whole Number: 42], p. [3] col. 6.
Special Collections at Falvey Memorial Library owns the 2 volume set, Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. To request the volumes, please fill out a Special Collections Request form available at the Information Desk or submit the online form. For more information about Special Collections, click here.
Picturesque Ireland The Gaelic American, Vol. II, No. 46, November 18, 1905, p. 8.
Read Singing Fires The Gaelic American, Vol. XIII, No. 17, April 22, 1916, Whole Number 658, p. 5.
Publishers of conservative literary magazines reluctantly yielded to advertisements for a profit. By including advertisements in each of its issues, one such magazine, The Youth’s Companion, according to James D. Norris, author of Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865-1920, witnessed a growth in subscriptions from the decision, in 1857, from 5,000 subscribers to well over 50,000 in circulation by 1868.
Below are 2 advertisements in The Youth's Companion for newly published books titles.
Yankee in the Trenches The Youth’s Companion: the Best of American Life in Fiction Fact and Comment, v. 92, no. 16, April 18, 1918, p. 202.
Bill of the U. S. A., and Other War Verses The Youth’s Companion: the Best of American Life in Fiction Fact and Comment, v. 92, no. 27, July 4, 1918, p. 348.
"Encyclopedia Americana, general encyclopaedia that was the first major multivolume encyclopaedia to be published in the United States (1829–33). . . . Compiled and edited by Francis Lieber, Americana was first published in 13 volumes. Subsequent editions were published in 1911 (20 volumes) and 1918–20 (30 volumes)..." [Britannica]
Encyclopedia Americana The Fra: a Journal of Affirmation, v. 10 no. 4, January, 1913, p. xvii.
References
Giordano, Ralph G. Fun and Games in Twentieth-Century America: A Historical Guide to Leisure. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2003, p. 12. Print.
Saffell, William Thomas Roberts. Records of the Revolutionary War... 3rd ed. Baltimore : Charles C. Saffell, 1894. Internet Archives. Accessed 18 Nov. 2016. Web.
Kane, Elisha Kent. Arctic Explorations : the Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. 2 vols. Philadelphia : Childs & Peterson, 1856. Internet Archives. Web. 8 Sept. 2016.
volume 1 volume 2
"SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION." New York Daily Times (1851-1857): 2. Oct 16 1855. ProQuest. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
"Second Grinnell Expedition." Wikipedia. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
Norris, James D. Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865-1920. New York : Greenwood Press, 1990, p. 30-31. Print.
Duffield, Kenneth Graham. Bill of the U. S. A., and Other War Verses. Philadelphia : Henry Altemus company, 1918. Internet Archives. Web. 8 Sept. 2016.
Holmes, R. Derby. A Yankee in the Trenches. Boston : Little, Brown, and Company, 1918. UNZ.org Web. 8 Sept. 2016.
"Encyclopedia Americana". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.
Beuttler, Fred W. "Encyclopedias." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 204. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Dec. 2016.
Additional Notes
Poster. "Corporal R. Derby Holmes author of "A Yankee in the Trenches". Read The Book- Hear Him Lecture!...” National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). College Park, MD nara.gov Web. 8 Sept. 2016.
". . . less-expensive binding techniques and the introduction of a mass market increased readership of books . . ." [Giordano]
“ . . . Noah Webster began a distinctly American tradition with his two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), which was basically an encyclopedic dictionary. . . .The first encyclopedia based mainly on American contributions was the sixteen-volume New American Cyclopaedia, edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana in 1858–1863." [Beutler 204]
