CHAPTER 27.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

To the book collector and the Librarian, books of bibliography are the

tools of the profession. Without them he would be lost in a maze of

literature without a clue. With them, his path is plain, and, in exact

proportion to his acquaintance with them, will his knowledge and

usefulness extend. Bibliography may be defined as the science which

treats of books, of their authors, subjects, history, classification,

cataloguing, typography, materials (including paper, printing and

binding) dates, editions, etc. This compound word, derived from two Greek

roots, _Biblion_, book, and _graphein_, to write, has many analogous

words, some of which, ignorantly used to express a bibliographer, may be

set down for distinction: as, for example--Bibliopole--a seller of books,

often erroneously applied to a librarian, who buys but never sells:

Bibliophile, a lover of books, a title which he should always exemplify:

Bibliopegist, a book-binder: Bibliolater, a worshipper of books:

Bibliophobe, a hater of books: Bibliotaph, a burier of books--one who

hides or conceals them: Bibliomaniac, or bibliomane, one who has a mania

or passion for collecting books. (Bibliomania, some one has said, is a

disease: Bibliophily is a science: The first is a parody of the second.)

Bibliophage, or bibliophagist, a book-eater, or devourer of books.

Bibliognost, one versed in the science of books. Biblioklept, a book

thief. (This, you perceive, is from the same Greek root as kleptomaniac.)

Bibliogist, one learned about books, (the same nearly as bibliographer);

and finally, Bibliothecary, a librarian.

This brings me to say, in supplementing this elementary list (needless

for some readers) that _Bibliotheca_ is Latin for a library;

_Bibliothèque_ is French for the same; _Bibliothécaire_ is French for

Librarian, while the French word _Libraire_ means book seller or

publisher, though often mistaken by otherwise intelligent persons, for

librarian, or library.

The word "bibliotechny" is not found in any English dictionary known to

me, although long in use in its equivalent forms in France and Germany.

It means all that belongs to the knowledge of the book, to its handling,

cataloguing, and its arrangement upon the shelves of a library. It is

also applied to the science of the formation of libraries, and their

complete organization. It is employed in the widest and most extended

sense of what may be termed material or physical bibliography.

Bibliotechny applies, that is to say, to the technics of the librarian's

work--to the outside of the books rather than the inside--to the

mechanics, not the metaphysics of the profession. The French word

"_Bibliothéconomie_," much in use of late years, signifies much the same

thing as _Bibliotechnie_, and we translate it, not into one word, but

two, calling it "library economy." This word "economy" is not used in the

most current sense--as significant of saving--but in the broad, modern

sense of systematic order, or arrangement.

There are two other words which have found their way into Murray's Oxford

Dictionary, the most copious repository of English words, with

illustrations of their origin and history, ever published, namely,

Biblioclast--a destroyer of books (from the same final root as

iconoclast) and Bibliogony, the production of books. I will add that out

of the fifteen or more words cited as analogous to Bibliography, only

three are found used earlier than the last quarter century, the first use

of most having been this side of 1880. This is a striking instance of the

phenomenal growth of new words in our already rich and flexible English

tongue. Carlyle even has the word "Bibliopoesy," the making of

books,--from _Biblion_, and _poiein_--to make.

Public libraries are useful to readers in proportion to the extent and

ready supply of the helps they furnish to facilitate researches of every

kind. Among these helps a wisely selected collection of books of

reference stands foremost. Considering the vast extent and opulence of

the world of letters, and the want of experience of the majority of

readers in exploring this almost boundless field, the importance of every

key which can unlock its hidden stores becomes apparent. The printed

catalogue of no single library is at all adequate to supply full

references, even to its own stores of knowledge; while these catalogues

are, of course, comparatively useless as to other stores of information,

elsewhere existing. Even the completest and most extensive catalogue in

the world, that of the British Museum Library, although now extended to

more than 370 folio volumes in print, representing 3,000 volumes in

manuscript, is not completed so as to embrace the entire contents of that

rich repository of knowledge.

From lack of information of the aid furnished by adequate books of

reference in a special field, many a reader goes groping in pursuit of

references or information which might be found in some one of the many

volumes which may be designated as works of bibliography. The diffidence

and reserve of many students in libraries, and the mistaken fear of

giving trouble to librarians, frequently deprives them of even those aids

which a few words of inquiry might bring forth from the ready knowledge

of the custodians in charge.

That is the best library, and he is the most useful librarian, by whose

aid every reader is enabled to put his finger on the fact he wants, just

when it is wanted. In attaining this end it is essential that the more

recent, important, and valuable aids to research in general science, as

well as in special departments of each, should form a part of the

library. In order to make a fit selection of books (and all libraries are

practically reduced to a selection, from want of means to possess the

whole) it is indispensable to know the relative value of the books

concerned. Many works of reference of great fame, and once of great

value, have become almost obsolete, through the issue of more extensive

and carefully edited works in the same field. While a great and

comprehensive library should possess every work of reference, old or new,

which has aided or may aid the researches of scholars, (not forgetting

even the earlier editions of works often reprinted), the smaller

libraries, on the other hand, are compelled to exercise a close economy

of selection. The most valuable works of reference, among which the more

copious and extensive bibliographies stand first, are frequently

expensive treasures, and it is important to the librarian furnishing a

limited and select library to know what books he can best afford to do

without. If he cannot buy both the _Manuel du libraire_ by Brunet, in

five volumes, and the _Trésor des livres rares et précieux_ of Graesse,

seven volumes, both of which are dictionaries of the choicer portions of

literature, it is important to know that Brunet is the more indispensable

of the two. From the 20,000 reference books lying open to the

consultation of all readers in the great rotunda of the British Museum

reading room, to the small and select case of dictionaries, catalogues,

cyclopaedias, and other works of reference in a town or subscription

library, the interval is wide indeed. But where we cannot have all, it

becomes the more important to have the best; and the reader who has at

hand for ready reference the latest and most copious dictionary of each

of the leading languages of the world, two or three of the best general

bibliographies, the most copious catalogue raisonné of the literature in

each great department of science, the best biographical dictionaries, and

the latest and most copious encyclopaedias issued from the press, is

tolerably well equipped for the prosecution of his researches.

Next in importance to the possession in any library of a good selection

of the most useful books of reference, is the convenient accessibility of

these works to the reading public. Just in proportion to the

indispensability and frequency of use of any work should be the facility

to the reader of availing himself of its aid. The leading encyclopaedias,

bibliographies, dictionaries, annuals, and other books of reference

should never be locked up in cases, nor placed on high or remote shelves.

There should be in every library what may be termed a central bureau of

reference. Here should be assembled, whether on circular cases made to

revolve on a pivot, or on a rectangular case, with volumes covering both

sides, or in a central alcove forming a portion of the shelves of the

main library, all those books of reference, and volumes incessantly

needed by students in pursuit of their various inquiries. It is important

that the custodians of all libraries should remember that this ready and

convenient supply of the reference books most constantly wanted, serves

the double object of economizing the time of the librarian and assistants

for other labor, and of accommodating in the highest degree the readers,

whose time is also economized. The misplacement of volumes which will

thus occur is easily rectified, while the possibility of loss through

abstraction is so extremely small that it should not be permitted to

weigh for a moment in comparison with the great advantages resulting from

the rule of liberality in aiding the wants of readers.

Bibliography, in its most intimate sense, is the proper science of the

librarian. To many it is a study--to some, it is a passion. While the

best works in bibliography have not always been written by librarians,

but by scholars enamored of the science of books, and devotees of

learning, it is safe to say that the great catalogues which afford such

inestimable aid to research, have nearly all been prepared in libraries,

and not one of the books worthy of the name of bibliography, could have

been written without their aid.

In viewing the extensive field of bibliographies, regard for systematic

treatment requires that they be divided into classes. Beginning first

with general bibliographies, or those claiming to be universal, we should

afterwards consider the numerous bibliographies of countries, or those

devoted to national literature; following that by the still more numerous

special bibliographies, or those embracing works on specially designated

subjects. The two classes last named are by far the most numerous.

Although what may be termed a "universal catalogue" has been the dream of

scholars for many ages, it is as far as ever from being realized--and in

fact much farther than ever before, since each year that is added to the

long roll of the past increases enormously the number of books to be

dealt with, and consequently the difficulties of the problem. We may set

down the publication of a work which should contain the titles of all

books ever printed, as a practical impossibility. The world's literature

is too vast and complex to be completely catalogued, whether on the

coöperative plan, or any other. Meanwhile the many thousands of volumes,

each of which has been devoted to some portion of the vast and

ever-increasing stores of literature and science which human brains have

put in print, will serve to aid the researches of the student, when

rightly guided by an intelligent librarian.

Notwithstanding the hopeless nature of the quest, it is true that some

men of learning have essayed what have been termed universal

bibliographies. The earliest attempt in this direction was published at

Zürich in 1545, under the title of "Bibliotheca Universalis," by Conrad

Gesner, a Swiss scholar whose acquisition of knowledge was so extensive

that he was styled "a miracle of learning." This great work gave the

titles of all books of which its author could find trace, and was

illustrated by a mass of bibliographical notes and criticism. It long

held a high place in the world of letters, though it is now seldom

referred to in the plethora of more modern works of bibliography. In

1625, the bookseller B. Ostern put forth at Frankfort, his _Bibliothèque

Universelle_, a catalogue of all books from 1500 to 1624. In 1742, Th.

Georgi issued in eleven folio volumes, his _Allgemeines Europäisches_

_Bücher-lexikon_, claiming to represent the works of nearly all writers

from 1500 down to 1739. This formidable catalogue may perhaps be said to

embrace more forgotten books than any other in the literary history of

the world.

Almost equally formidable, however, is the bibliography of that erudite

scholar, Christian G. Jöcher, who put forth in 1750, at Leipzig, his

_Allgemeines Gelehrten-lexicon_, in which, says the title page, "the

learned men of all classes who have lived from the beginning of the world

up to the present time, are described." This book, with its supplement,

by Adelung and Rotermund, (completed only to letter R), makes ten

ponderous quarto volumes, and may fairly be styled a thesaurus of the

birth and death of ancient scholars and their works. It is still largely

used in great libraries, to identify the period and the full names of

many obscure writers of books, who are not commemorated in the catalogues

of universal bibliography, compiled on a more restrictive plan.

We come now to the notable catalogues of early-printed books, which aim

to cover all the issues of the press from the first invention of

printing, up to a certain period. One of the most carefully edited and

most readily useful of these is Hain, (L.) _Repertorium Bibliographicum_,

in four small and portable octavo volumes, published at Stuttgart in

1826-38. This gives, in an alphabet of authors, all the publications

found printed (with their variations and new editions), from A. D. 1450

to A. D. 1500.

More extensive is the great catalogue of G. W. Panzer, entitled _Annales

Typographici_, in eleven quarto volumes, published at Nuremberg from 1793

to 1803. This work, which covers the period from 1457 (the period of the

first book ever printed with a date) up to A. D. 1536, is not arranged

alphabetically (as in Hain's Repertorium) by the names of authors, but in

the order of the cities or places where the books catalogued were

printed. The bibliography thus brings together in one view, the

typographical product of each city or town for about eighty years after

the earliest dated issues of the press, arranged in chronological order

of the years when printed. This system has undeniable advantages, but

equally obvious defects, which are sought to be remedied by many copious

indexes of authors and printers.

Next in importance comes M. Maittaire's _Annales Typographici, ab artis

inventae origine ad annum 1664_, printed at The Hague (Hagae Comitum) and

completed at London, from 1722-89, in eleven volumes, quarto, often bound

in five volumes. There is besides, devoted to the early printed

literature of the world, the useful three volume bibliography by La Serna

de Santander, published at Brussels in 1805, entitled _Dictionnaire

bibliographique choisie du quinzième siècle_, Bruxelles, 1803, embracing

a selection of what its compiler deemed the more important books

published from the beginning of printing up to A. D. 1500. All the four

works last named contain the titles and descriptions of what are known as

_incunabula_, or cradle-books (from Latin _cunabula_, a cradle) a term

applied to all works produced in the infancy of printing, and most

commonly to those appearing before 1500. These books are also sometimes

called fifteeners, or 15th century books.

Of general bibliographies of later date, only a few of the most useful

and important can here be named. At the head of these stands, deservedly,

the great work of J. C. Brunet, entitled _Manuel du Libraire et de

l'amateur des livres_, the last or 5th edition of which appeared at Paris

in 1860-64, in five thick octavo volumes. The first edition of Brunet

appeared in 1810, and every issue since has exhibited not only an

extensive enlargement, but great improvement in careful, critical

editorship. It embraces most of the choicest books that have appeared in

the principal languages of Europe, and a supplement in two volumes, by P.

Deschamps and G. Brunet, appeared in 1878.

Next to Brunet in importance to the librarian, is J. G. T. Graesse's

_Trésor des Livres rares et précieux_, which is more full than Brunet in

works in the Teutonic languages, and was published at Dresden in six

quarto volumes, with a supplement, in 1861-69. Both of these

bibliographies aim at a universal range, though they make a selection of

the best authors and editions, ancient and modern, omitting however, the

most recent writers. The arrangement of both is strictly alphabetical, or

a dictionary of authors' names, while Brunet gives in a final volume a

classification by subjects. Both catalogues are rendered additionally

valuable by the citation of prices at which many of the works catalogued

have been sold at book auctions in the present century.

In 1857 was published at Paris a kind of universal bibliography, on the

plan of a _catalogue raisonné_, or dictionary of subjects, by Messrs. F.

Denis, Pinçon, and De Martonne, two of whom were librarians by

profession. This work of over 700 pages, though printed in almost

microscopic type, and now about forty years in arrears, has much value as

a ready key to the best books then known on nearly every subject in

science and literature. It is arranged in a complete index of topics, the

books under each being described in chronological order, instead of the

alphabetical. The preponderance is given to the French in the works cited

on most subjects, but the literature of other nations is by no means

neglected. It is entitled _Nouveau Manuel de Bibliographie universelle_,

and being a subjective index, while Brunet and Graesse are arranged by

authors' names, it may be used to advantage in connection with these

standard bibliographies.

While on this subject, let me name the books specially devoted to lists

of bibliographical works--general and special. These may be termed the

catalogues of catalogues,--and are highly useful aids, indeed

indispensable to the librarian, who seeks to know what lists of books

have appeared that are devoted to the titles of publications covering any

period, or country, or special subject in the whole circle of sciences or

literatures. The first notably important book of reference in this field,

was the work of that most industrious bibliographer, Gabriel Peignot, who

published at Paris, in 1812, his _Repertoire bibliographique

universelle_, in one volume. This work contains the titles of most

special bibliographies, of whatever subject or country, published up to

1812, and of many works bibliographical in character, devoted to literary

history.

Dr. Julius Petzholdt, one of the most learned and laborious of

librarians, issued at Leipzig in 1866, a _Bibliotheca bibliographica_,

the fuller title of which was "a critical catalogue, exhibiting in

systematic order, the entire field of bibliography covering the

literature of Germany and other countries." The rather ambitious promise

of this title is well redeemed in the contents: for very few catalogues

of importance issued before 1866, are omitted in this elaborate book of

931 closely printed pages. Most titles of the bibliographies given are

followed by critical and explanatory notes, of much value to the

unskilled reader. These notes are in German, while all the titles cited

are in the language of the books themselves. After giving full titles of

all the books in general bibliography, he takes up the national

bibliographies by countries, citing both systematic catalogues and

periodicals devoted to the literature of each in any period. This is

followed by a distributive list of scientific bibliographies, so full as

to leave little to be desired, except for later issues of the press. One

of the curiosities of this work is its catalogue of all the issues of the

"Index Librorum Prohibitorum", or books forbidden to be read, including

185 separate catalogues, from A. D. 1510 to A. D. 1862.

The next bibliographical work claiming to cover this field was in the

French language, being the _Bibliographie des bibliographies_ of Léon

Vallée, published in 1883 at Paris. This book, though beautifully

printed, is so full of errors, and still fuller of omissions, that it is

regarded by competent scholars as a failure, though still having its uses

to the librarian. It is amazing that any writer should put forth a book

seventeen years after the great and successful work of Petzholdt,

purporting to be a catalogue of bibliographies, and yet fail to record

such a multitude of printed contributions to the science of sciences as

Vallée has overlooked.

Some ten years later, or in 1897, there came from the French press, a far

better bibliographical work, covering the modern issues of books of

bibliography more especially, with greater fullness and superior plan.

This is the _Manuel de Bibliographie générale_, by Henri Stein. This work

contains, in 915 well-printed pages, 1st. a list of universal

bibliographies: 2d. a catalogue of national bibliographies, in

alphabetical order of countries: 3d. a list of classified bibliographies

of subjects, divided into seventeen classes, namely, religious sciences,

philosophical sciences, juridical, economic, social, and educational

sciences, pure and applied sciences, medical sciences, philology and

belles lettres, geographical and historical sciences, sciences auxiliary

to history, archaeology and fine arts, music, and biography. Besides

these extremely useful categories of bibliographical aids, in which the

freshest publications of catalogues and lists of books in each field are

set forth, M. Stein gives us a complete geographical bibliography of

printing, on a new plan. This he entitles "_Géographie bibliographique_,"

or systematic lists of localities in every part of the world which

possessed a printing press prior to the 19th century. It gives, after the

modern or current name of each place, the Latin, or ancient name, the

country in which located, the year in which the first printed publication

appeared in each place, and finally, the authority for the statement.

This handy-list of information alone, is worth the cost of the work,

since it will save much time of the inquirer, in hunting over many

volumes of Panzer, Maittaire, Hain, Dibdin, Thomas, or other authors on

printing, to find the origin of the art, or early name of the place where

it was introduced. The work contains, in addition, a general table of the

periodicals of all countries, (of course not exhaustive) divided into

classes, and filling seventy-five pages. It closes with a "repertory of

the principal libraries of the entire world," and with an index to the

whole work, in which the early names in Latin, of all places where books

were printed, are interspersed in the alphabet, distinguished by italic

type, and with the modern name of each town or city affixed. This

admirable feature will render unnecessary any reference to the _Orbis

Latinus_ of Graesse, or to any other vocabulary of geography, to identify

the place in which early-printed books appeared. Stein is by no means

free from errors, and some surprising omissions. One cardinal defect is

the absence of any full index of authors whose books are cited.

There are also quite brief catalogues of works on bibliography in J.

Power's Handy Book about Books, London, 1870, and in J. Sabin's

Bibliography: a handy book about books which relate to books, N. Y.,

1877. The latter work is an expansion of the first-named.

We come now to the second class of our bibliographies, _viz._: those of

various countries. Here the reader must be on his guard not to be misled

into too general an interpretation of geographical terms. Thus, he will

find many books and pamphlets ambitiously styled "_Catalogue

Américaine_", which are so far from being general bibliographies of books

relating to America, that they are merely lists of a few books for sale

by some book-dealer, which have something American in their subject. To

know what catalogues are comprehensive, and what period they cover, as

well as the limitations of nearly all of them, is a necessary part of the

training of a bibliographer, and is essential to the librarian who would

economize his time and enlarge his usefulness.

Let us begin with our own country. Here we are met at the outset by the

great paucity of general catalogues of American literature, and the utter

impossibility of finding any really comprehensive lists of the books

published in the United States, during certain periods. We can get along

tolerably well for the publications within the last thirty years, which

nearly represent the time since systematic weekly bibliographical

journals have been published, containing lists of the current issues of

books. But for the period just before the Civil War, back to the year

1775, or for very nearly a century, we are without any systematic

bibliography of the product of the American press. The fragmentary

attempts which have been made toward supplying an account of what books

have been published in the United States from the beginning, will

hereafter be briefly noted. At the outset, you are to observe the wide

distinction that exists between books treating of America, or any part of

it, and books printed in America. The former may have been printed

anywhere, at any time since 1492, and in any language: and to such books,

the broad significant term "_Americana_" may properly be applied, as

implying books relating to America. But this class of works is wholly

different from that of books written or produced by Americans, or printed

in America. It is these latter that we mean when we lament the want of a

comprehensive American catalogue. There have been published in the United

States alone (to go no farther into America at present) thousands of

books, whose titles are not found anywhere, except widely scattered in

the catalogues of libraries, public and private, in which they exist.

Nay, there are multitudes of publications which have been issued in this

country during the last two hundred years, whose titles cannot be found

anywhere in print. This is not, generally, because the books have

perished utterly,--though this is unquestionably true of some, but

because multitudes of books that have appeared, and do appear, wholly

escape the eye of the literary, or critical, or bibliographical

chronicler. It is, beyond doubt true even now, that what are commonly

accepted as complete catalogues of the issues of the press of any year,

are wofully incomplete, and that too, through no fault of their

compilers. Many works are printed in obscure towns, or in newspaper

offices, which never reach the great eastern cities, where our principal

bibliographies, both periodical and permanent, are prepared. Many books,

too, are "privately printed," to gratify the pride or the taste of their

authors, and a few copies distributed to friends, or sometimes to

selected libraries, or public men. In these cases, not only are the

public chroniclers of new issues of the press in ignorance of the

printing of many books, but they are purposely kept in ignorance. Charles

Lamb, of humorous and perhaps immortal memory, used to complain of the

multitudes of books which are no books; and we of to-day may complain, if

we choose, of the vast number of publications that are not published.

Take a single example of the failure of even large and imposing volumes

to be included in the "American Catalogue," for whose aid, librarians are

so immeasurably indebted to the enterprise of its publishers. A single

publishing house west of New York, printed and circulated in about four

years time, no less than thirty-two elaborate and costly histories, of

western counties and towns, not one of which was ever recorded by title

in our only comprehensive American bibliography. Why was this? Simply

because the works referred to were published only as subscription books,

circulated by agents, carefully kept out of booksellers' hands, and never

sent to the Eastern press for notice or review. When circumstances like

these exist as to even very recent American publications (and they are

continually happening) is it any wonder that our bibliographies are

incomplete?

Perhaps some will suggest that there must be one record of American

publications which is complete, namely, the office of Copyright at

Washington. It is true that the titles of all copyright publications are

required by law to be there registered, and copies deposited as soon as

printed. It is also true that a weekly catalogue of all books and other

copyright publications is printed, and distributed by the Treasury, to

all our custom-houses, to intercept piratical re-prints which might be

imported. But the books just referred to were not entered for copyright

at all, the publishers apparently preferring the risk of any rival's

reprinting them, rather than to incur the cost of the small copyright

fee, and the deposit of copies. In such cases, there is no law requiring

publishers to furnish copies of their books. The government guarantees no

monopoly of publication, and so cannot exact a _quid pro quo._, however

much it might inure to the interest of publisher and author to have the

work seen and noticed, and preserved beyond risk of perishing (unless

printed on wood-pulp paper) in the Library of the United States.

If such extensive omissions of the titles of books sometimes important,

can now continually occur in our accepted standards of national

bibliography, what shall we say of times when we had no critical

journals, no publishers' trade organs, and no weekly, nor annual, nor

quinquennial catalogues of American books issued? Must we not allow, in

the absence of any catalogues worthy of the name, to represent such

periods, that all our reference books are from the very necessity of the

case deplorably incomplete? Only by the most devoted, indefatigable and

unrewarded industry have we got such aids to research as to the existence

of American publications, as Haven's Catalogue of American publications

prior to 1776, Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana, and the American Catalogues

of Leypoldt, Bowker, and their coadjutors.

These illustrations are cited to guard against the too common error of

supposing that we have in the numerous American catalogues that exist,

even putting them all together, any full bibliography of the titles of

American books. While it cannot be said that the _lacunae_ or omissions

approach the actual entries in number, it must be allowed that books are

turning up every day, both new and old, whose titles are not found in any

catalogue. The most important books--those which deserve a name as

literature, are found recorded somewhere--although even as to many of

these, one has to search many alphabets, in a large number of volumes,

before tracing them, or some editions of them.

One principal source of the great number of titles of books found

wanting in American catalogues, is that many books were printed at places

remote from the great cities, and were never announced in the columns of

the press at all. This is especially true as to books printed toward the

close of the 18th century, and during the first quarter of the 19th. Not

only have we no bibliography whatever of American issues of the press,

specially devoted to covering the long period between 1775 and 1820, but

multitudes of books printed during that neglected half-century, have

failed to get into the printed catalogues of our libraries. As

illustrations we might give a long catalogue of places where

book-publication was long carried on, and many books of more or less

importance printed or reprinted, but in which towns not a book has been

produced for more than three-quarters of a century past. One of these

towns was Winchester, and another Williamsburg, in Virginia; another was

Exeter, New Hampshire, and a fourth was Carlisle, Pa. In the last-named

place, one Archibald Loudon printed many books, between A. D. 1798, and

1813, which have nearly all escaped the chroniclers of American

book-titles. Notable among the productions of his press, was his own

book, A History of Indian Wars, or as he styled it in the title page, "A

selection of some of the most interesting narratives of outrages

committed by the Indians in their wars with the white people." This

history appeared in two volumes from the press of A. Loudon, Carlisle,

Pa., in 1808 and 1811. It is so rare that I have failed to find its title

anywhere except in Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana, Field's Indian

Bibliography, and the Catalogue of the Library of Congress. Not even the

British Museum Library, so rich in Americana, has a copy. Sabin states

that only six copies are known, and Field styles it, "this rarest of

books on America," adding that he could learn of only three perfect

copies in the world. A Harrisburg reprint of 1888 (100 copies to

subscribers) is also quite rare.

Continuing the subject of American bibliography, and still lamenting the

want of any comprehensive or finished work in that field which is worthy

of the name, let us see what catalogues do exist, even approximating

completeness for any period. The earlier years of the production of

American books have been partially covered by the "Catalogue of

publications in what is now the United States, prior to 1776." This list

was compiled by an indefatigable librarian, the late Samuel F. Haven, who

was at the head of the Library of the American Antiquarian Society, at

Worcester, Mass. It gives all titles by sequence of years of publication,

instead of alphabetical order, from 1639 (the epoch of the earliest

printing in the United States) to the end of 1775. The titles of books

and pamphlets are described with provoking brevity, being generally

limited to a single line for each, and usually without publishers' names,

(though the places of publication and sometimes the number of pages are

given) so that it leaves much to be desired. Notwithstanding this, Mr.

Haven's catalogue is an invaluable aid to the searcher after titles of

the early printed literature of our country. It appeared at Albany, N.

Y., in 1874, as an appendix [in Vol 2] to a new (or second) edition of

Isaiah Thomas's History of Printing in America, which was first published

in 1810. In using it, the librarian will find no difficulty, if he knows

the year when the publication he looks for appeared, as all books of each

year are arranged in alphabetical order. But if he knows only the

author's name, he may have a long search to trace the title, there being

no general alphabet or index of authors. This chronological arrangement

has certain advantages to the literary inquirer or historian, while for

ready reference, its disadvantages are obvious.

While there were several earlier undertakings of an American bibliography

than Haven's catalogue of publications before the American revolution,

yet the long period which that list covers, and its importance, entitled

it to first mention here. There had, however, appeared, as early as the

year 1804, in Boston, "A Catalogue of all books, printed in the United

States, with the prices, and places where published, annexed." This large

promise is hardly redeemed by the contents of this thin pamphlet of 91

pages, all told. Yet the editor goes on to assure us--

"This Catalogue is intended to include all books of general sale

printed in the United States, whether original, or reprinted;

that the public may see the rapid progress of book-printing in a

country, where, twenty years since, scarcely a book was

published. Local and occasional tracts are generally omitted.

Some of the books in the Catalogue are now out of print, and

others are scarce. It is contemplated to publish a new edition of

this Catalogue, every two years, and to make the necessary

additions and corrections; and it is hoped the time is not far

distant, when useful Libraries may be formed of American editions

of Books, well printed, and handsomely bound.

Printed at Boston, for the Book sellers, Jan., 1804."

The really remarkable thing about this catalogue is that it was the very

first bibliographical attempt at a general catalogue, in separate form,

in America. It is quite interesting as an early booksellers' list of

American publications, as well as for its classification, which is as

follows: "Law, Physic, Divinity, Bibles, Miscellanies, School Books,

Singing Books, Omissions."

The fact that no subsequent issues of the catalogue appeared, evinces the

very small interest taken in bibliographic knowledge in those early days.

This curiosity of early American bibliography gives the titles of 1338

books, all of American publication, with prices in 1804. Here are

samples: Bingham's Columbian Orator, 75 cts.: Burney's Cecilia, 3 vols.

$3: Memoirs of Pious Women, $1.12: Belknap's New Hampshire, 3 vols. $5:

Mrs. Coghlan's Memoirs, 62½ cts.: Brockden Brown's Wieland, $1:

Federalist, 2 vols. $4.50: Dilworth's Spelling Book, 12½ cts.: Pike's

Arithmetic, $2.25.

The number of out-of-the-way places in which books were published in

those days is remarkable. Thus, in Connecticut, we have as issuing books,

Litchfield, New London and Fairhaven: in Massachusetts, Leominster,

Dedham, Greenfield, Brookfield, and Wrentham: in New Hampshire, Dover,

Walpole, Portsmouth, and Exeter: in Pennsylvania, Washington, Carlisle,

and Chambersburg: in New Jersey, Morristown, Elizabethtown, and

Burlington. At Alexandria, Va., eight books are recorded as published.

This historical nugget of the Boston bookmongers of a century ago is so

rare, that only two copies are known in public libraries, namely, in the

Library of Congress, and in that of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

It was reprinted in 1898, for the Dibdin Club of New York, by Mr. A.

Growoll, of the Publishers' Weekly, to whose curious and valuable notes

on "Booktrade Bibliography in the United States in the 19th century," it

forms a supplement.

The next catalogue of note claiming to be an American catalogue, or of

books published in America, was put forth in 1847, at Claremont, N. H.,

by Alexander V. Blake. This was entitled, "The American Bookseller's

complete reference trade-list, and alphabetical catalogue of books,

published in this country, with the publishers' and authors' names, and

prices." This quarto volume, making 351 pages (with its supplement issued

in 1848) was the precursor of the now current "Trade List Annual,"

containing the lists of books published by all publishers whose lists

could be secured. The titles are very brief, and are arranged in the

catalogue under the names of the respective publishers, with an

alphabetical index of authors and of anonymous titles at the end. It

served well its purpose of a book-trade catalogue fifty years ago, being

the pioneer in that important field. It is now, like the catalogue of

1804, just noticed, chiefly interesting as a bibliographical curiosity,

although both lists do contain the titles of some books not elsewhere

found.

Mr. Orville A. Roorbach, a New York bookseller, was the next compiler of

an American bibliography. His first issue of 1849 was enlarged and

published in 1852, under this title: "Bibliotheca Americana: a catalogue

of American publications, including reprints and original works, from

1820 to 1852, inclusive." This octavo volume of 663 pages, in large,

clear type, closely abbreviates nearly all titles, though giving in one

comprehensive alphabet, the authors' names, and the titles of the books

under the first word, with year and place of publication, publisher's

name, and price at which issued. No collation of the books is given, but

the catalogue supplies sufficient portions of each title to identify the

book. It is followed in an appendix by a catalogue of law books, in a

separate alphabet, and a list of periodicals published in the United

States in 1852.

Roorbach continued his catalogue to the year 1861, by the issue of three

successive supplements: (1) covering the American publications of 1853 to

1855: (2) from 1855 to 1858: (3) from 1858 to 1861. These four

catalogues, aiming to cover, in four different alphabets, the issues of

the American press for forty years, or from 1820 to 1861, are extremely

useful lists to the librarian, as finding lists, although the rigorously

abbreviated titles leave very much to be desired by the bibliographer,

and the omissions are exceedingly numerous of books published within the

years named, but whose titles escaped the compiler.

Following close upon Roorbach's Bibliotheca Americana in chronological

order, we have next two bibliographies covering American book issues

from 1861 to 1871. These were compiled by a New York book dealer named

James Kelly, and were entitled The American Catalogue of Books, (original

and reprint) published in the United States from Jan., 1861, to Jan.,

1866, [and from Jan., 1866, to Jan., 1871] with date of publication,

size, price, and publisher's name. The first volume contained a

supplement, with list of pamphlets on the civil war, and also a list of

the publications of learned societies. These very useful and important

catalogues cover ten years of American publishing activity, adding also

to their own period many titles omitted by Roorbach in earlier years.

Kelly's catalogues number 307 and 444 pages respectively, and, like

Roorbach's, they give both author and title in a single alphabet. Names

of publishers are given, with place and year of publication, and retail

price, but without number of pages, and with no alphabet of subjects.

Next after Kelly's catalogue came the first issue of the "American

Catalogue," which, with its successive volumes (all published in quarto

form) ably represents the bibliography of our country during the past

twenty-five years. The title of the first volume, issued in 1880, reads

"American Catalogue of books in print and for sale (including reprints

and importations) July 1, 1876. Compiled under direction of F. Leypoldt,

by L. E. Jones." This copious repository of book-titles was in two parts:

(1) Authors, and (2) Subject-index. Both are of course in alphabetical

order, and the titles of books are given with considerable abbreviation.

The fact that its plan includes many titles of books imported from Great

Britain, (as supplying information to book-dealers and book-buyers)

prevents it from being considered as a bibliography of strictly American

publications. Still, it is the only approximately full American

bibliography of the publications current twenty-five years ago. As such,

its volumes are indispensable in every library, and should be in its

earliest purchase of works of reference. The limitation of the catalogue

to books still in print--_i. e._, to be had of the publishers at the time

of its issue, of course precludes it from being ranked as a universal

American bibliography.

The first issue in 1880 was followed, in 1885, by the "American

Catalogue, 1876-1884: books recorded (including reprints and

importations), under editorial direction of R. R. Bowker, by Miss A. I.

Appleton." This appeared in one volume, but with two alphabets; one being

authors and titles, and the other an alphabet of subjects. As this volume

included eight years issues of the American press, the next bibliography

published covered the next ensuing six years, and included the books

recorded from July, 1884 to July, 1890. This appeared in 1891, edited

with care by Miss Appleton and others.

In 1896 appeared its successor, the "American Catalogue, 1890-95.

Compiled under the editorial direction of R. R. Bowker." This catalogue

records in its first volume, or alphabet of authors: (1) author; (2) size

of book; (3) year of issue; (4) price; (5) publisher's name. The names of

places where published are not given with the title, being rendered

unnecessary by the full alphabetical list of publishers which precedes,

and fixes the city or town where each published his books. This same

usage is followed in succeeding issues of the American Catalogue.

This indispensable bibliography of recent American books, in addition to

its regular alphabets of authors and titles (the latter under first words

and in the same alphabet with the authors) and the succeeding alphabet of

subjects, prints a full list of the publications of the United States

government, arranged by departments and bureaus; also a list of the

publications of State governments, of Societies, and of books published

in series.

This last issue has 939 pages. Its only defects (aside from its

inevitable omissions of many unrecorded books) are the double alphabet,

and the want of collation, or an indication of the number of pages in

each work, which should follow every title. Its cost in bound form is

$15, at which the two preceding American catalogues 1876-84, and 1884 to

1890 can also be had, while the catalogue of books in print in 1876,

published in 1880, is quite out of print, though a copy turns up

occasionally from some book-dealer's stock.

The American Catalogue has now become a quinquennial issue, gathering the

publications of five years into one alphabet; and it is supplemented at

the end of every year by the "Annual American Catalogue," started in

1886, which gives, in about 400 pages, in its first alphabet, collations

of the books of the year (a most important feature, unfortunately absent

from the quinquennial American Catalogue.) Its second alphabet gives

authors, titles, and sometimes subject-matters, but without the

distribution into subject-divisions found in the quinquennial catalogue;

and the titles are greatly abridged from the full record of its first

alphabet. Its price is $3.50 each year.

And this annual, in turn, is made up from the catalogues of titles of all

publications, which appear in the _Publishers' Weekly_, the carefully

edited organ of the book publishing interests in the United States. This

periodical, which will be found a prime necessity in every library,

originated in New York, in 1855, as the "American Publishers' Circular,"

and has developed into the recognized authority in American publications,

under the able management of R. R. Bowker and A. Growoll. For three

dollars a year, it supplies weekly and monthly alphabetical lists of

whatever comes from the press, in book form, as completely as the titles

can be gathered from every source. It gives valuable notes after most

titles, defining the scope and idea of the work, with collations,

features which are copied into the Annual American Catalogue.

I must not omit to mention among American bibliographies, although

published in London, and edited by a foreigner, Mr. N. Trübner's

"Bibliographical Guide to American literature: a classed list of books

published in the United States during the last forty years." This book

appeared in 1859, and is a carefully edited bibliography, arranged

systematically in thirty-two divisions of subjects, filling 714 pages

octavo. It gives under each topic, an alphabet of authors, followed by

titles of the works, given with approximate fullness, followed by place

and year of publication, but without publishers' names. The number of

pages is also given where ascertained, and the price of the work quoted

in sterling English money. This work, by a competent German-English

book-publisher of London, is preceded by a brief history of American

literature, and closes with a full index of authors whose works are

catalogued in it.

We come now to by far the most comprehensive and ambitious attempt to

cover not only the wide field of American publications, but the still

more extensive field of books relating to America, which has ever yet

been made. I refer to the "Bibliotheca Americana; a dictionary of books

relating to America," by Joseph Sabin, begun more than thirty years ago,

in 1868, and still unfinished, its indefatigable compiler having died in

1881, at the age of sixty. This vast bibliographical undertaking was

originated by a variously-gifted and most energetic man, not a scholar,

but a bookseller and auctioneer, born in England. Mr. Sabin is said to

have compiled more catalogues of private libraries that have been

brought to the auctioneer's hammer, than any man who ever lived in

America. He bought and sold, during nearly twenty years, old and rare

books, in a shop in Nassau street, New York, which was the resort of book

collectors and bibliophiles without number. He made a specialty of

Americana, and of early printed books in English literature, crossing the

Atlantic twenty-five times to gather fresh stores with which to feed his

hungry American customers. During all these years, he worked steadily at

his _magnum opus_, the bibliography of America, carrying with him in his

many journeys and voyages, in cars or on ocean steamships, copy and

proofs of some part of the work. There have been completed about ninety

parts, or eighteen thick volumes of nearly 600 pages each; and since his

death the catalogue has been brought down to the letter S, mainly by Mr.

Wilberforce Eames, librarian of the Lenox Library, New York. Though its

ultimate completion must be regarded as uncertain, the great value to all

librarians, and students of American bibliography or history, of the work

so far as issued, can hardly be over-estimated. Mr. Sabin had the benefit

in revising the proofs of most of the work, of the critical knowledge and

large experience of Mr. Charles A. Cutter, the librarian of the Boston

Athenaeum Library, whose catalogue of the books in that institution, in

five goodly volumes, is a monument of bibliographical learning and

industry. Sabin's Dictionary is well printed, in large, clear type, the

titles being frequently annotated, and prices at auction sales of the

rarer and earlier books noted. Every known edition of each work is given,

and the initials of public libraries in the United States, to the number

of thirteen, in which the more important works are found, are appended.

In not a few cases, where no copy was known to the compiler in a public

collection, but was found in a private library, the initials of its owner

were given instead.

This extensive bibliography was published solely by subscription, only

635 copies being printed at $2.50 a part, so that its cost to those

subscribing was about $225 unbound, up to the time of its suspension. The

first part appeared January 1, 1867, although Vol. I. bears date New

York, 1868. It records most important titles in full, with (usually)

marks denoting omissions where such are made. In the case of many rare

books relating to America (and especially those published prior to the

18th century) the collations are printed so as to show what each line of

the original title embraces, _i. e._ with vertical marks or dashes

between the matter of the respective lines. This careful description is

invaluable to the bibliographical student, frequently enabling him to

identify editions, or to solve doubts as to the genuineness of a

book-title in hand. The collation by number of pages is given in all

cases where the book has been seen, or reported fully to the editor. The

order of description as to each title is as follows: (1) Place of

publication (2) publisher (3) year (4) collation and size of book. Notes

in a smaller type frequently convey information of other editions, of

prices in various sales, of minor works by the same writer, etc.

The fullness which has been aimed at in Sabin's American bibliography is

seen in the great number of sermons and other specimens of pamphlet

literature which it chronicles. It gives also the titles of most early

American magazines, reviews, and other periodicals, except newspapers,

which are generally omitted, as are maps also. As an example of the often

minute cataloguing of the work, I may mention that no less than eight

pages are occupied with a list of the various publications and editions

of books by Dr. Jedediah Morse, an author of whom few of the present

generation of Americans have ever heard. He was the earliest American

geographer who published any comprehensive books upon the subject, and

his numerous Gazetteers and Geographies, published from 1784 to 1826,

were constantly reprinted, until supplanted by more full, if not more

accurate works.

Upon the whole, Sabin's great work, although so far from being finished,

is invaluable as containing immeasurably more and fuller titles than any

other American bibliography. It is also the only extensive work on the

subject which covers all periods, although the books of the last thirty

years must chiefly be excepted as not represented. As a work of

reference, while its cost and scarcity may prevent the smaller public

libraries from possessing it, it is always accessible in the libraries of

the larger cities, where it is among the foremost works to be consulted

in any research involving American publications, or books of any period

or country relating to America, or its numerous sub-divisions.

I may now mention, much more cursorily, some other bibliographies

pertaining to our country. The late Henry Stevens, who died in 1886,

compiled a "Catalogue of the American Books in the Library of the British

Museum." This was printed by the Museum authorities in 1856, and fills

754 octavo pages. Its editor was a highly accomplished bibliographer and

book-merchant, born in Vermont, but during the last forty years of his

life resided in London, where he devoted himself to his profession with

great learning and assiduity. He published many catalogues of various

stocks of books collected by him, under such titles as "Bibliotheca

historica," "Bibliotheca Americana," etc., in which the books were

carefully described, often with notes illustrating their history or their

value. He became an authority upon rare books and early editions, and

made a valuable catalogue of the Bibles in the Caxton exhibition at

London, in 1877, with bibliographical commentary. He was for years chief

purveyor of the British Museum Library for its American book purchases,

and aided the late James Lenox in building up that rich collection of

Americana and editions of the Scriptures which is now a part of the New

York Public Library. His catalogue of the American books in the British

Museum, though now over forty years old, and supplanted by the full

alphabetical catalogue of that entire library since published, is a

valuable contribution to American bibliography.

Mr. Stevens was one of the most acute and learned bibliographers I have

known. He was a man of marked individuality and independent views; with a

spice of eccentricity and humor, which crept into all his catalogues, and

made his notes highly entertaining reading. Besides his services to the

British Museum Library, in building up its noble collection of Americana,

and in whose rooms he labored for many years, with the aid of Panizzi and

his successors, whom he aided in return, Stevens collected multitudes of

the books which now form the choice treasures of the Lenox library, the

Carter Brown library, at Providence, the Library of Congress, and many

more American collections. To go with him through any lot of Americana,

in one of his enterprising visits to New York, where he sometimes came to

market his overflowing stores picked up in London and on the continent,

was a rare treat. Every book, almost, brought out some verbal criticism,

anecdote or reminiscence of his book-hunting experiences, which began in

America, and extended all over Europe.

He was not only an indefatigable collector, but a most industrious and

accurate bibliographer, doing more work in that field, probably, than any

other American. He wrote a singularly careful, though rapid hand, as

plain and condensed as print, and in days before modern devices for

manifolding writing were known, he copied out his invoices in duplicate

or triplicate in his own hand, with titles in full, and frequent

descriptive notes attached. His many catalogues are notable for the

varied learning embodied. He was a most intelligent and vigilant book

collector for more than forty years, his early labors embracing towns in

New York and New England, as purveyor for material for Peter Force, of

Washington, whose American Archives were then in course of preparation.

Among the library collectors who absorbed large portions of his gathered

treasures, were James Lenox, Jared Sparks, George Livermore, John Carter

Brown, Henry C. Murphy, George Brinley, the American Geographical

Society, and many historical societies. He was an authority on all the

early voyages, and wrote much upon them. No one knew more about early

Bibles than Henry Stevens.

His enterprise and ambition for success led him to bold and sometimes

extensive purchases. He bought about 1865, the library of Baron von

Humboldt, and this and other large ventures embarrassed him much in later

years. He became the owner of the Franklin manuscripts, left in London by

the great man's grandson, and collected during many years a library of

Frankliniana, which came to the Library of Congress when the Franklin

manuscripts were purchased for the State Department in 1881.

He was proud of his country and his State, always signing himself "Henry

Stevens, of Vermont." His book-plate had engraved beneath his name, the

titles, "G. M. B.: F. S. A." The last, of course, designated him as

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, but the first puzzled

even his friends, until it was interpreted as signifying "Green Mountain

Boy." His brother used jocosely to assure me that it really meant

"Grubber of Musty Books."

As to his prices for books, while some collectors complained of them as

"very stiff," they appear, when compared with recent sales of Americana,

at auction and in sale catalogues, to be quite moderate. The late

historian Motley told me that Mr. Stevens charged more than any one for

Dutch books relating to America; but Mr. Motley's measure of values was

gauged by the low prices of Dutch booksellers which prevailed during his

residence in the Netherlands, for years before the keen demand from

America had rendered the numerous Dutch tracts of the West India Company,

etc., more scarce and of greater commercial value than they bore at the

middle of this century.

As treating of books by American authors, though not so much a complete

bibliography of their works, as a critical history, with specimens

selected from each writer, Duyckinck's "Cyclopaedia of American

Literature" deserves special mention. The last edition appeared at

Philadelphia, in 1875, in two large quarto volumes. Equally worthy of

note is the compilation by E. C. Stedman and Ellen M. Hutchinson, in

eleven volumes, entitled "Library of American Literature," New York,

1887-90. A most convenient hand-book of bibliographical reference is

Oscar F. Adams's "Dictionary of American Authors," Boston, 1897, which

gives in a compact duodecimo volume, the name and period of nearly every

American writer, with a brief list of his principal works, and their date

of publication, in one alphabet.

Of notable catalogues of books relating to America, rather than of

American publications, should be named White Kennet's "Bibliotheca

Americana primordia," the earliest known catalogue devoted to American

bibliography, London, 1713; O. Rich, Catalogue of Books relating to

America, 1500-1700, London, 1832; Rich, "Bibliotheca Americana nova,"

books printed between 1700 and 1844, two volumes, London, 1835-46; H.

Harrisse, "Bibliotheca Americana vetustissima," New York, 1866, and its

supplement, Paris, 1872, both embracing rare early Americana, published

from 1492 to 1551. This is a critically edited bibliography of the rarest

books concerning America that appeared in the first half century after

its discovery.

The important field of American local history has given birth to many

bibliographies. The earliest to be noted is H. E. Ludewig's "Literature

of American Local History," New York, 1846. Thirty years later came F. B.

Perkins's "Check List for American Local History," Boston, 1876; followed

by A. P. C. Griffin's "Index of articles upon American Local History in

historical collections," Boston, 1889, and by his "Index of the

literature of American local history in collections published in

1890-95," Boston, 1896. Closely allied to the catalogues of city, town,

and county histories, come the bibliographies of genealogies and family

histories, of which the last or 4th edition of D. S. Durrie's

"Bibliographia genealogica Americana; an alphabetical index to American

genealogies in county and town histories, printed genealogies, and

kindred works," Albany, 1895, is the most comprehensive and

indispensable. This work gives us an alphabet of family names, under each

of which are grouped the titles of books in which that special name is

treated, with citation of the page. It also gives the name and date of

publication of the special family genealogies which are separately

printed, whether book or pamphlet, with number of pages in each. The

work is by a librarian, to whose laborious diligence Americans are deeply

indebted.

Among other bibliographies of genealogy are Munsell's "American

Genealogist: a catalogue of family histories," Albany, 1897. This work

aims to give the titles of all separately printed American genealogies,

in an alphabet of family names, giving titles in full, with place and

year of publication, name of publisher, and collation, or number of

pages.

For the multitudinous public documents of the United States, consult B.

P. Poore's "Descriptive catalogue of the government publications of the

United States, 1775-1881," Washington, 1885, and F. A. Crandall, Check

list of public documents, debates and proceedings from 1st to 53d

Congress (1789-1895), Washington, 1895; also,

Comprehensive index to the publications of the United States government,

1889-1893. The same--United States Catalogue of Public Documents, 1893 to

1895, Washington, 1896. Several biennial or annual lists of United States

Documents have followed.

As supplementing these extensive catalogues, we have in the Appendix to

the "American Catalogue" of 1885 a List of United States Government

publications from 1880 to 1884; in that of 1891 a List from 1884 to 1890;

and in that of 1896 a List covering the years 1891 to 1895.

A most important recent bibliography is found in H. C. Bolton's

"Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665-1895,"

Washington, 1897.

There are also many sale catalogues of American books, with prices, some

of which may be noted, _e. g._ J. R. Smith, Bibliotheca Americana,

London, 1865; F. Müller, Catalogue of books and pamphlets relating to

America, Amsterdam, 1877, and later years. Ternaux-Compans, "Bibliothèque

Américaine;" books printed before 1700, Paris, 1837: P. Trömel,

"Bibliothèque Américaine," Leipzig, 1861: D. B. Warden, "Bibliothèque

Américaine," Paris, 1840: R. Clarke & Co., "Bibliotheca Americana,"

Cincinnati, 1874, 1878, 1887, 1891, and 1893.

There are, besides, important catalogues of some private libraries,

devoted wholly or chiefly to books relating to America. Among these, the

most extensive and costly is John R. Bartlett's catalogue of the library

of J. Carter Brown, of Providence, in four sumptuous volumes, with

fac-similes of early title-pages, of which bibliography only fifty copies

were printed. It is entitled, "Bibliotheca Americana: a catalogue of

books relating to North and South America," 1482-1800, 4 vols. large

8vo., Providence, 1870-82. The Carter Brown Library is now the richest

collection of Americana in any private library in the world.

Among catalogues of libraries sold by auction, and composed largely of

American books, are those of John A. Rice, New York, 1870: W. Menzies,

New York, 1875: George Brinley, in five volumes, sold 1878 to 1886: Henry

C. Murphy, New York, 1884: S. L. M. Barlow, New York, 1889: and Brayton

Ives, New York, 1891.

The wide field of bibliography of English literature has given birth to

many books. Only the more comprehensive can here be noted.

R. Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, in four quarto volumes, Edinburgh,

1824, although now old, is still an indispensable work of reference,

giving multitudes of titles of English books and pamphlets not found in

any other bibliography. It of course abounds in errors, most of which

have been copied in Allibone's Dictionary of English literature. This

extensive work is a monument of labor, to which the industrious compiler

devoted many years, dying of too intense study, at Glasgow, at the early

age of forty-five, in the year 1819. The issue of the work in 1824, being

thus posthumous, its errors and omissions are largely accounted for by

the author's inability to correct the press. The plan of the work is

unique. Vols. 1 and 2 contain the alphabet of authors and titles, with

dates and publishers' prices when known. Vols. 3 and 4 contain an

alphabet of subjects, in which the titles re-appear, with a key alphabet

in italic letters attached to each title, by which reference is made to

the author-catalogue, at a fixed place, where all the works of the author

are recorded.

The work is printed in small type, with two crowded columns on a page,

thus containing an enormous amount of matter. The key is quickly learned,

and by its aid, and the alphabet of subjects, the librarian can find out

the authors of many anonymous books. Watt is the only general

bibliography of English literature which gives most of the obscure

writers and their works.

Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, in its second

edition, enlarged by H. G. Bohn, is a most indispensable bibliography.

This work is arranged alphabetically by authors' names, and aims to

record all important books published in Great Britain, from the earliest

times to about A. D. 1834. It is in eleven parts, or 6 vols. 16 mo. of

very portable size, Lond., 1857-65. While it gives collations of the more

important works, with publishers and dates, it fails to record many

editions of the same work. Its quoted prices represent the original

publisher's price, with very frequent additions of the sale prices

obtained at book auctions. The chief defect of Lowndes' Manual is its

total lack of any index of subjects.

S. Austin Allibone's "Critical Dictionary of English literature,"

Philadelphia, 1858-71, 3 volumes, with supplement by John F. Kirk, in 2

vols., Philadelphia, 1891, is a copious reference book, which, in spite

of its many errors and crudities, should be in all libraries. It contains

in abbreviated form most of the titles in Watt and Lowndes, with the

addition of American authors, and of British books published since the

period covered by Lowndes. The three volumes of Allibone accompany the

titles of works by noted authors with many critical remarks, copied

mostly from reviews and literary journals. This feature of the book,

which makes it rather a work of literary history and criticism than a

bibliography pure and simple, has been dropped in Mr. Kirk's supplement,

which thus becomes properly a bibliography. The publications of England

and America, from about 1850 to 1890, are more fully chronicled in this

work of Kirk than in any other bibliography.

The important "English Catalogue of Books," from A. D. 1835 to 1897, in 5

vols., with its valuable Index of Subjects, in 4 vols., from 1857 up to

1889, is so constantly useful as to be almost indispensable in a public

library. It records, in provokingly brief one-line titles, with

publisher's name, year of issue, and price, all books published in Great

Britain whose titles could be secured. It thus subserves the same purpose

for English publications, which the American Catalogue fulfills for those

of the United States. Both are in effect greatly condensed

bibliographies, enabling the librarian to locate most of the published

literature in the English language for many years back. The English

catalogue, from 1897 to date, is supplemented by its annual issues,

entitled "the English Catalogue of Books for 1898," etc.

I have said that accuracy should be one of the cardinal aims of the

librarian: and this because in that profession it is peculiarly

important. Bibliography is a study which approaches very nearly to the

rank of an exact science; and the practice of it, in application to the

daily work of the librarian, is at once a school of accuracy, and a test

of ability. A habit of analytical methods should be assiduously

cultivated, without which much time will be lost in fruitless searches in

the wrong books to find what one wants. As a single illustration of this

need of method, suppose that you want to find the title of a certain book

with its full description, a want likely to occur every hour in the day,

and sometimes many times an hour. The book is perhaps Sir Walter Scott's

Life of Napoleon,--9 vols., London, 1827, and your object is to trace its

title, published price, etc., among the numerous bibliographies of

literature. You begin by a simple act of analysis--thus. This is a

London, not an American book--hence it is useless to look in any American

catalogue. It is written in English, so you are dispensed from looking

for it in any French or other foreign bibliography. Its date is 1827,

London. Therefore among the three leading English reference books in

bibliography, which are Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, Lowndes'

Bibliographer's Manual, and the English Catalogue, you at once eliminate

the former as not containing the book. Why do you do this? Because Watt's

great work, in four huge quartos, though invaluable for the early English

literature, stops with books published before the date of its issue,

1824. Your book is published in 1827, and of course could not appear in a

catalogue of 1824. Shall you refer then to the English Catalogue for its

title? No, because the five volumes of that useful work (though some

imperfect book lists were published earlier), begin with the year 1835,

and the book you seek bears date of 1827. You are then reduced, by this

simple process of analyzing in your mind the various sources of

information, and rejecting all except one, namely Lowndes'

Bibliographer's Manual, to a search in a single catalogue for your title.

This simplifies matters greatly, and saves all the time which might

otherwise have been lost in hunting fruitlessly through several works of

reference. Lowndes' invaluable Manual was published in 1834, and though a

second edition, edited by Bohn, appeared thirty years later, it does not

contain books published after that date, unless they are later editions

of works issued earlier. You find in it your Scott's Napoleon, date 1827,

with its published price, £4. 14. 6, and an account of other later

editions of the book. Of course you will observe that it is necessary to

know what period of years is covered by the various bibliographies, and

to carry those dates perpetually in your memory, in order thus to

simplify searches, and save time. Once learned, you will have the comfort

of knowing where to turn for light upon any book, and the faculty of

accurate memory will reward the pains taken to acquire it.

I must not omit to include, in noting the more useful and important

English bibliographies, the very copious list of works appended to each

biography of British writers, in the new "Dictionary of National

Biography," Lond., 1885-1900. This extensive work is nearly finished in

about 65 volumes, and constitutes a rich thesaurus of information about

all British authors, except living ones.

Living characters, considered notable, and brief note of their books, are

recorded in "Men and Women of the Time," 15th ed. London, 1899--but this

book, although highly useful, is far from being a bibliography.

I should not omit to mention among useful librarians' aids, the "Book

Prices Current; record of prices at which books have been sold at

auction." This London publication began with the year 1887. No sales are

reported of books bringing less than one pound sterling. The book-sales

of 1898 were reported in 1899 of this issue, and the book is published in

each case the next year. The similar catalogue entitled "American Book

Prices Current" was begun with 1895, being compiled from the sale

catalogues of American auctioneers, for that year, and the prices brought

at auction in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, are recorded

for all notable books, but limited to works bringing as much as $3 or

upward. Five years' reports, in as many volumes, have now been issued,

and the publication is to be continued. Its utility of course consists in

informing librarians or collectors of the most recent auction values of

books. At the same time, a word of caution is required, since it is not

safe to judge of average commercial values, from any isolated bid at an

auction sale.

A very useful classed catalogue, published by the British Museum library,

and edited by G. K. Fortescue, an assistant librarian, is the so-called

"Subject-index to modern works," of which three volumes have appeared,

beginning with the accessions of 1880-85, each covering five years

additions of new works, in all European languages, to that library. The

third volume embraces the years 1890 to 1895, and appeared in 1896. As

this is not confined to works in English, it should be classed with

universal bibliography. As containing most of the latest books of any

note, all three volumes are important aids to research. They are printed

in large type, in which it is a refreshment to the eye to read titles,

after the small and obscure print of Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, and

the but little better type of Lowndes' Manual, and of the English

Catalogue. A collation of pages is also added in most cases, and the

importance of this can hardly be overrated. These catalogues of the

British Museum Library abound in pamphlets, English, French, German,

Italian, etc., evincing how large a share of attention is given to the

minor literature coming from the press in the more recent years.

W. H. D. Adams's "Dictionary of English Literature," London, 1880, and

later, in a compact volume, gives authors and titles of the more

important English and American books. Also, in the same alphabet, an

index to the titles, as well as authors, by the first word, and to many

sayings or quotations, with their original sources. It is a highly useful

book, although its small bulk leaves it far from being a comprehensive

one.

Chambers' Cyclopaedia of English Literature, in 2 vols., London, 1876,

has an account of the most notable British writers, with specimens of

their works, and forms what may be termed an essential part of the

equipment of every public library.

The Library Association of the United Kingdom, since 1888, the date of

its organization, has published Transactions and Proceedings; also, since

1889, "The Library," a periodical with bibliographical information.

It may be noted, without undue expression of pride, that America first

set the example of an organized national association of Librarians

(founded in 1876) followed the same year by a journal devoted to Library

interests. That extremely useful periodical, the _Library Journal_, is

now in its twenty-fourth volume. Its successive issues have contained

lists of nearly all new bibliographical works and catalogues published,

in whatever language.

The London Publisher's Circular, first established in 1838, is a weekly

organ of the book-publishing trade, aiming to record the titles of all

British publications as they appear from the press. It gives, in an

alphabet by authors' names, the titles in much abbreviated form, with

publisher, size in inches, collation, price, and date, with a fairly good

index of titles or subjects, in the same alphabet. Covering much the same

ground, as a publishers' periodical, is "The Bookseller," issued monthly

since 1858, with lists of the new issues of the British press, and

critical notices. In addition to the English catalogue, there is the

extensive Whitaker's "Reference catalogue of current literature,"

published every year, which now makes two large volumes, and embraces the

trade catalogues of English publishers, bound up in alphabetical order,

with a copious index, by authors and titles, in one alphabet, prefixed.

While on English bibliographies, I must note the important work on local

history, by J. P. Anderson, "Book of British Topography," London, 1881.

This gives, in an alphabet of counties, titles of all county histories or

descriptive works of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, followed in

each county by a list of town histories or topographical works. The

arrangement under each town is chronological. Its only want is a

collation of the books. British genealogy, or the history of families, is

treated bibliographically in G. W. Marshall's "The Genealogist's Guide,"

London, 1893, which gives an alphabet of family names, with references in

great detail to county and town histories, pedigrees, heralds'

visitations, genealogies, etc., all over Great Britain, in which any

family is treated.

The wide field of foreign bibliography, by countries, cannot here be

entered upon, nor can I now treat of the still more extensive range of

works devoted to the bibliography of various subjects.

INDEX.

Access to shelves, 215-225

Accuracy, rarity of, 254-257

Adams (O. F.) Dictionary of American authors, 490

Adams (W. H. D.) Dictionary of English literature, 499

Administration, faculty of, 249

Advertising, library, 353-356

Aids to readers, 190-214

Alexandrian library, 107, 289

Allibone (S. A.) Critical dictionary of English literature, 494-495

Alphabeting titles, 380, 388-389

American book prices, current, 1895-99, 498

American catalogue, 1876-1899, 481-484

American Library Association

catalogue of 5,000 books, 25, 371

foundation of, 499

list of novelists, 22

on open shelves, 223

on size-notation, 390

Americana,

bibliographies of, 472-493

rare, 454-456

what are, 473

Anderson (J. P.) book of British topography, 500

Arabic figures, 81

Art of reading, 171-189

Art, lesson from, 24

Assistants in libraries

appointment of, 337-339

qualifications of, 242-274

regulations for, 341-345

Astor library, N. Y., 35, 306

mutilation in, 137, 140

Auction sales, 38-40, 45-47, 457

Authorship, 271-2

Bad books, 20-24, 281-2

Bartlett (J. R.) catalogue of J. Carter Brown library, 493

Bay Psalm book, 455

Beckford library sale, 74, 457-8

Beecher (H. W.) on books, 15

Bibliography, 459-500

accessibility of, 463-464

bibliographies of, 469-471

classification of, 464-5

definition of, 459

earliest American, 478

early works in, 465

no full American, 475

of American publications, 472-493

selection of works in, 462

Binding of books, 50-87, 93-94

colors in, 57

desiderata in, 52

how a bibliomaniac binds, 432

importance of, 87

lettering titles, 72, 78-83

machine methods, 62-3

marbling and gilding, 68-69, 73

materials for, 53

rebinding methods, 64

Biography, 4-7, 17

discrepancies in, 210-212

living characters, 197

Blake (A. V.) American booksellers' trade-list catalogue, 479

Boccaccio of 1471, sale of, 46

Bolton (H. C.) catalogue of scientific and technical periodicals, 492

Book binding, 50-87, 93-94

Book buying, 33-49

Book covering, 97

Book-marks, 115

Book plates, 90-93, 97-100

Book prices

current, 1887-99, 497-498

American, 1895-99, 498

Book shops, second hand, 42-45, 458

Book supports, 96, 110

Book worms, 108

Books, cheap and poor editions of, 30

Books, choice of, 3-32

Books for public libraries, selection of, 15-32, 361

Books of reference, 16, 462-463

Books, three classes of, 182

Books which have helped me, 183

Books,--_see_ Reading

Bores, how to treat, 259

Boston Athenaeum library, 305, 485

early pamphlets in, 149

Boston public library, 315

appointments in, 338

languages demanded, 247

Bowker (R. R.)

American catalogue, 482-483

Publishers' weekly, 483

British Museum library

appointments in, 338

catalogue of, 396-399, 498

its defects, 398

classification, 367

mutilation in, 137-138

trustees of, 340

Brown (J. Carter) library of Americana, 493

Brunet (J. C.) Manuel du libraire, 467

Bry (De) Voyages, 449, 451

Buildings, library, 321-333

cost of, 331

light in, 325

location of, 323-324

many mistakes in, 321

materials for, 324

periodical room, 328

shelving, 325

Bulwer-Lytton (E. L.) writings of, 23, 174

Burnham (T. O. H. P.), 44

Bury, Richard de, 292

Buying of books, 33-49

methods of, 36-37

Calf binding, 55

Campbell (John), 45

Capitals, how to be used in catalogues, 378, 387

Card catalogue system, 393

its defects, 393-394

how obviated, 394-396

Cards, for catalogues, 393

Carlyle (Thomas)

life of Cromwell, 148

on librarians, 249

on reading, 171

Carnegie (Andrew) gifts to libraries, 315

Catalogue of all books printed in the U. S. 1804, 478-479

Catalogues, 373-399

abridging titles, 382-383

accession, 386

auction, 38-39

card system for, 393

chronology of authors, 381, 389, 398

classed, 374-5, 383

collations in, 379

cross references, 377

Cutter's rules for, 375

deficiencies of American, 473-476

dictionary, 373-5, 383-384

English, 383, 495

errors in, 384-385, 388

imprints, how given, 379

kinds of, 373

of British Museum library, 396-399, 498

printing, advantages of, 395-396

rules for, 375-381

sale, value of, 33-34, 37

shelf, 386

size-notation in, 389-391

use of capitals in, 378, 387

Caxton's press, books, 451

Census of wealth, futility of, 194-196

Chambers' Cyclopaedia of English literature, 499

Children's books, 276, 278

reading-rooms, 329-330

Choice of books, 3-32, 277, 335

Chronology of authors, 381, 398

Classic authors, 30

Classification of books, 362-372

application of, 366

Bibliothèque nationale, system of, 368

British museum, system of, 368

Brunet's system of, 367

close classification, 364-365

conflict of systems, 362-363

Crunden's verses on, 430

Cutter, system of, 369

Dewey, system of, 370

Fletcher, system of, 372

fixed shelf location, 371

Library of Congress, system of, 368

Cleaning books, 103-104, 127-130

Clergymen, some book-abusing, 138, 140

Cleveland public library

fiction experience, 27

methods of selections, 31

Cogswell (J. G.), 35

Collation, 61, 379

Collier, J. Payne, as a cataloguer, 385

Congressional library--_see_ Library of Congress

Copy tax,

origin of, 400

rationale of, 406, 409

Copyright

and libraries, 400-416

aggregate copyrights entered, 410

and Library of Congress, 404-411

books not entered, 474

duration of, 413

foundation of, 402, 412

history of, 403

in the Constitution, 401

international, why, 412-413

origin of, 401

perpetual, 402, 413

provisions of, 414

Counting a library, 350, 386

Courtesy, in libraries, 250, 261

Croton bug, 109

Crowding of books on shelves, 116-117

Crunden (F. M.) verses on classification, 430

Cutter (C. A.) Boston Athenaeum catalogue, 485

classification, 430

rules for catalogue, 375

Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana, 485

Cutting edges, 60-61, 67

Damage to books, _see_ Injuries

Damp, an enemy of books, 104

Dates, errors in, 210-212

Dates of books, ancient expression of, 391-393

Decimal system, 370, 390

Denis (F.) Nouveau manuel de bibliographie, 468-469

Dewey (Melvil)

classification, 370

remark by, 433

Dictionary catalogues, 373-375, 383-384

Dictionary of national biography, 197, 497

Dime novels, 21, 281

Documents (U. S. public) catalogues, 492

Dogs-earing books, 114

"Dont's," list of proper warnings, 134

Duplicates in libraries, 31, 167-168

Durrie (D. S.) Bibliographia genealogica Americana, 491

Dust,

in libraries, 101-103

to remove from books, 103

Duyckink's Cyclopaedia of American literature, 490

Eames (W.) continuation of Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana, 485

Editions,

to be always noted, 387

first, 46, 388, 452

Education, 245, 282-283

Egypt, libraries of, 287-289

Elzevirs, 424, 457

Emerson (R. W.) cited, 172, 185

Encyclopaedia Britannica, scope and limitations of, 14, 197-199, 245

Enemies of books, 101-118

English catalogue,

1835-1899, 383, 495

uses dictionary form, 383

Errors

in books, 210-212, 255

in librarians, 256-257

Essays, 9, 17

Facsimile reproduction, 132-134

Fiction, 12, 18-28, 179

Fires,

in libraries, 106-108, 131, 297

destruction of books by, 448-449

First editions, 46, 388, 452

Fletcher (W. I.),

classification, 372

index to periodicals, 169

Force (Peter) historical library of, 304

rich in pamphlets, 150

Formation of libraries, 357-362

Franklin (B.)

collections of Frankliniana, 456

his manuscripts, 489

on Philadelphia library, 299

French language, need of, 246-248, 257

Furnishings of libraries, 326

Gas, an enemy of books, 105

Genealogy, bibliographies of, 491-492, 500

George IV, library of, 212

Georgi (T.) Allgemeines Europäisches bücher-lexikon, 465

Gesner (C.) Bibliotheca universalis, 465

Gould (Jay) History of Delaware county, N. Y., 453

Gowans (William), 43

Graesse, Trésor des livres rares et précieux, 468

Grangerising, 450

Greece, libraries of, 288-289

Griffin (A. P. C.) indexes of American local history, 491

Grolier bindings, 73, 75

Grolier club, N. Y., 85, 447

Growoll (A.)

Book trade bibliography in the U. S., 479

Publishers' weekly, 483

Hain (L.) Repertorium bibliographicum, 466

Halliwell-Phillipps (J. O.), privately printed books, 446

Harris (W. T.) experience with memory, 239

Harrisse (H.) Bibliotheca Americana, 491

Harvard university library, 296

Haven (S. F.) Catalogue of American publications, 1639-1775, 477

Heat, an enemy of books, 104

Heber library, 34

Helps to readers, 191-214

History, 7-8, 17

of libraries, 287-320

(local) bibliography, 491, 500

Homer, 173, 184, 458

Horace, perfection of his odes, 184

Humboldt (Baron von), 449

Humors of the library, 430-443

Hurst (J. F.) on choice books, 15

Illustrated books, 279, 450, 451, 453-454

Immoral books, 20, 22, 453

Index expurgatorius, 448, 470

Indexes,

use of, 205-206

how to make, 388-389

substitutes for, 207

Injuries to books, _See_ Crowding, Cutting, Dogs-earing, Enemies,

Ink, Margins, Mutilations, Soiling, Tracing, Torn leaves

Ink,

use of, 113

how removed, 128-129

Inquiries, innumerable, 191-201

International copyright, 412-416

Iron construction, 106

Jöcher (C. G.) Allgemeines gelehrten-lexikon, 466

Juvenile books, 276, 278, 279

Kelly (J.) American catalogue, 1861-1871, 481

Khayyam (Omar), 457

Kirk (J. F.) Supplement to Allibone, 1850-1890, 495

La Bedoyère, French revolution collection, 149

Labelling books, 90-93

Ladies' reading-rooms, 329

Languages, foreign, 246-248

La Serna de Santander, Dictionnaire bibliographique, 467

Law books, binding, 76

Letters, 8-9

Leypoldt (F.) Books of all time, 481

Librarian

a constant aid, 200

ancient idea of, 273

as an author, 271-272

as preserver and restorer of books, 120-121

benefits to, of inquiries, 202

high standard for, 272

indispensable, how to become, 200, 203

intercourse with readers, 199

librarian's dream, 417

qualifications of, 242-274

accuracy, 254

business habits, 249, 258

courtesy, 250, 261

energy and industry, 262

foreign languages, 246-248

good temper, 250

habits of order, 257-260

health, 251

impartial liberality, 264-265

knowledge of books, 248

love of his work, 253

patience inexhaustible, 261

sound common sense, 252

tact unfailing, 262

reserve in recommending books, 213

"who reads is lost," 242, 274

woes of a, 441-443

Librarianship,

attractions of, 193, 268-271

drawbacks attending, 266-268

opens avenues to growth, 269

school of human nature, 270

Libraries,

ancient, of clay, 287-288

and copyright, 400-416

and schools, 275, 282

and universities, 282, 293

annual reports of, 349-356

catalogues of, 373-399

classification of, 362-372

exaggeration of volumes in, 212-213

formation of, 357-362

founded by individual gift, 311-313

history of, 287-320

historical, 319

list of, over 100,000 vols., 309-310

mercantile, 319

monastic, 290-292

picture of ancient, 273

poetry of, 417-430

professional, 319

prompt service in, 341-342

readers in, 186, 285-286

special report on, 1876, 309

state libraries, 316-317

statistics of American, 308

subscription libraries, 360

ten largest, 293

travelling libraries, 319-320

uses of, 275-286

Library, how to count a, 350, 386

Library, humors of the, 430

Library, poetry of the, 417

Library advertising, 353-356

Library association of United Kingdom, 499

Library buildings and furnishings, 321-333

_See_ Buildings

Library bulletins, 353

Library commissioners, 345

Library committees, 333-340, 360

Library donations, 361

Library Journal, N. Y., 1876-99, 499

Library laws (State), 357, 359

Library of Congress

and copyright books, 404-411, 416

appointments in, 338

joint committee on, 340

our national conservatory of books, 181-182

restriction of MSS. and rare books, 225

sketch of its history, 303-305

Library regulations, 341-349, 433-434

Library reports, 349

Library science schools, 338

Library trustees or boards of managers, 333-340

Literature, history of, 12-14

Loudon (A.) History of Indian wars, 476

Lowndes (W. T.) Bibliographer's Manual, 494

Macaulay (T. B.) memory, 229

Maittaire (M.) Annales typographici, 467

Marbling, 68

Margins, writing or marking on, 114, 124-125, 136

Mazarin Bible, 46, 445

Memory,

the faculty of, 226-241

attention and association, its corner-stones, 236-237

cardinal qualification of a librarian, 226-227

discursive reading impairs it, 240-241

improvement of, 236-240

intuitive memory, 230

local memory, 229

verbal memory, 228

Migne (J. P. _abbé_) Patrologie, 447

Milton, 11, 147, 184, 187, 458

Mnemonic systems, 234-236

Morocco binding, 56

Morris (William) Kelmscott press, 447

Mutilation of books, 111, 124-126

penal laws for, 135-136

posting offenders, 138

New Hampshire library law, 314

Newspapers, _see_ Periodicals

New York Mercantile Library, selections for, 32

New York Public library, 307

Notation

of book sizes, 390

of book dates, 381, 391

Novels, _see_ Fiction

Nuremberg chronicle, 452

Omar (Caliph) sentence imputed to, 107, 171, 289

Omniscience, no human, 172

Open shelves, 215-225

American library association on, 223

an open question, 222

benefits of, 215-222, 224

evils of, 216-224

international library conference on, 220-221

Opinions on books, 27

Ostend manifesto, 196-197

Pamphlets,

literature of, 145-156

binding of, 153-155

British museum, wealth in, 149, 499

classification of, 152, 155

definitions of, 145

dignity and power of, 148

embarrassments of, 146

great works printed as, 147

how to acquire, 151

La Bedoyère collection of, 149

Peter Force, collection of, 150

swift disappearance of, 151

Thomason collection of, 148

Panzer (G. W.) Annales typographici, 466

Parchment, 54

Peignot (G.)

Repertoire bibliographique universelle, 469

Dictionnaire des livres condamnés, 448

Periodicals,

literature of, 157-170

binding of, 84-85

cardinal importance of, 153-154, 157, 161, 285

check list for, 168

compared with books, 164

completeness of, 158-159

continuous reading of impairs the memory, 241

indexes to, 169-170

lettering by Poole index, 84

limited library circulation, 167-168

newspapers

abuses of, 180

destruction of, 62

filing for readers' use, 166

library notices in, 353-356

mutilation of, 112

number of, 157, 160

over-reading of, 180, 241

percentage of, to books, 157

syndicate publication, 165

value of, 301-302

Perkins (F. B.) check-list for American local history, 491

Petzholdt (J.) Bibliotheca bibliographica, 469

Philadelphia library company's library, 299-302

Philadelphia Mercantile Library fire, 131-132

Phillipps (Sir T.) privately printed books, 447

Plato, reading of, 172, 178

Plutarch's lives, 3, 184

Poetical quotations, 193, 204-205

Poetry, 9-11, 18

Poetry of the library, 417-429

Politics in libraries, 265

Poole (W. F.)

plan of library building, 327

on ladies' reading-rooms, 329

Poole's indexes to periodical literature, 169

Poor Richard's almanac, 456

Pratt Institute library, thefts in, 144

Preparation for the shelves, 88-97

Press, the, and the library, 353-356

Prices of books, 36, 46-48, 444-451, 455-456, 497-498

Privately printed books, 446-447, 473

Problems, insoluble, 194-196

Pseudonyms, 376-377

Publishers' Circular (London), 499

Publishers' Weekly, N. Y., 483

Qualifications of librarians, 242-274

Questions asked, innumerable, 191, 204, 206-209

Quotations, search for, 193, 204

Rare books, 113, 114, 224, 444-459

causes of rarity, 445-457

mere age not a cause, 446

Readers,

aids to, 190-214

classification of, 186-187, 190-191, 206, 285-286

favoritism among, 217

limitations of aid, 204, 208

Reading,

art of, 171-189

best, not the latest, 178-179

choice of, 3-32, 181-2, 277-278

formative power of, 183-185

passion for, 458-459

inspiration of, 183-185

librarian's, 121, 243-244, 248

methods of, 175-178, 186-187

the literal, 175

the intuitive, 176

novel reading, 179

over-much reading of newspapers, 180, 241

perils of too great absorption in, 185-186

pleasures of, 182-189

reading aloud, 177-178, 280

taste in, 181

time to read, 173

Reading rooms, 326

Reclamation of books, 119-144

Recommending books, 32

to be done sparingly, 213, 244

Reference, books of, 16, 461-463

Religion, questions about, 201, 265

Reports, librarians', 349-356

comprehensive, 349

printing of, 352

Reserved books, 224-245

Restoration and reclamation of books, 119-144

Rich (O.) Bibliotheca Americana, 491

Roman libraries, 290

Roman numerals, 81, 391-392

Roorbach (O. A.) Bibliotheca Americana, 1820-1861, 480

Rubber bands, untrustworthy, 155

Rules, library, 341-349

call slips or tickets, 346

circulation, limit, 346-347

done into verse, 433-434

hours, 344

prompt service, 341-342

registration, 347

vacations, 345

Rush (James) bequest to Philadelphia Library Co., 301-302

Ruskin on collecting books, 14

Russia binding, 56

Sabin (J.) Bibliotheca Americana, 484-487

School district libraries a failure, 317-319

Schools and libraries, 275-282

Science, books of, 11, 18

Scott's Napoleon, bibliographical object-lesson, 496-497

Second-hand book shops, 42-45

Selection of books, 3-32, 277

_See_ Choice of books

Shakespeare, 10, 46, 184, 188, 458

Sheep binding, 55

Shelves, library, 325

access to, 215

preparation of books for, 88

Shelves, open, 215-225

Signatures, 65

Size-notation of books, 389-391

Sizing paper, 128

Smith's Historie of Virginia, 455

Smithsonian Institution

collection in Library of Congress, 304

copyright privilege of, 404

Soiling of books, 116

how removed, 127

Spelling, facility in, 232

Stack system, 216, 325

Stamps in books, 88-90, 114

State libraries, 316-317

appointments in, 339

Stealing of books, 111

_See_ thefts

Stedman (E. C.) Library of American literature, 490

Stein (H.) Manuel de bibliographie, 470-471

Stevens (Henry) characteristics of, 487, 489

Story (A) about stories, 436-437

Style,

importance of, 175-176, 226

sample of prose run mad, 26

Sunday-school books, 276

Syndicate publishing, 165-166

Teaching, 269

Tennyson (Alfred) early editions of poems, 452

Thackeray (W. M.) curious question of, 205

Thefts,

book, 111, 136-144

leniency in case of, 142-144

methods of reclamation, 141-144

Time, use of, 173-174, 258-259

Titles,

abridgment of, 382-383

alphabeting of, 388-389

entry of, in catalogues, 375-377

headings of, 377

lettering of, 72-73, 78-83

use of capitals in, 378, 381, 387

Titles of novels, done into verse, 436-437

Torn leaves, how repaired, 122

Tracing of maps or plates, 113

Travels, 11, 18

Tree calf binding, 74

Trübner (N.) Bibliographical guide to American literature, 484

Trustees, boards of library, 268, 333-340

Turner's illustrations, 454, 458

Ulster Co. Gazette, 1800, 456

Universal catalogue, 465

Universities, use of the library to, 282-285

University libraries, 294

Uses of libraries, 275-286

Vallée (L.) Bibliographie des bibliographies, 470

Vellum binding, 54

Voyages, 11, 18

Walpole (Horace) Strawberry hill press, 446

Washing soiled books, 127, 129

Watt (R.) Bibliotheca Britannica, 493-494

Wealth, all estimates of, futile, 194-196

Winsor (Justin)

a prolific author, 272

on librarians' instructions, 284

Woes of a librarian, 441-443

Worcester, Massachusetts, public library

methods of selection, 31

theft in, 143

use of by schools, 281

Yale university library, 298

Books for Authors

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

[Sidenote: Authors and Publishers]

A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIONS FOR BEGINNERS IN LITERATURE

Comprising a description of publishing methods and arrangements,

directions for the preparation of MSS. for the press, explanations of the

details of book-manufacturing, instructions for proof-reading, specimens

of typography, the text of the United States Copyright Law, and

information concerning International Copyrights, together with general

hints for authors. By G. H. P. and J. B. P.

_Seventh Edition, re-written with additional material._

_8°, gilt top_ _net, $1.75_

CHIEF CONTENTS

PART I.--Publishing arrangements--Books published at the risk and

expense of the publisher--Books published for the account of the

author, _i. e._, at the author's risk and expense, or in which he

assumes a portion of the investment--Publishing arrangements for

productions first printed in periodicals or cyclopædias--The

literary agent--Authors' associations--Advertising--On securing

copyright.

PART II.--The Making of

Books--Composition--Electrotyping--Presswork--Bookbinding--Illustrations.

"Full of valuable information for authors and writers. . . . A

most instructive and excellent manual."--GEORGE WM. CURTIS in

_Harper's Magazine_.

"This handy and useful book is written with perfect fairness and

abounds in hints which writers will do well to 'make a note of.'

. . . There is a host of other matters treated succinctly and

lucidly which it behoves beginners in literature to know, and we

can recommend it most heartily to them."--_London Spectator._

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON

BY GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM

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AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC IN ANCIENT TIMES

A Sketch of Literary Conditions and of the Relations with the

Public of Literary Producers, from the Earliest Times to the Fall

of the Roman Empire.

Second edition, revised, 12°, gilt top, $1.50.

The book abounds in information, is written in a delightfully succinct

and agreeable manner, with apt comparisons that are often humorous, and

with scrupulous exactness to statement, and without a sign of partiality

either from an author's or a publisher's point of view.--_New York

Times._

BOOKS AND THEIR MAKERS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

A Study of the Conditions of the Production and Distribution of

Literature from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Close of the

Seventeenth Century.

In two volumes, 8°, cloth extra (sold separately), each $2.50

Vol. I., 476-1600--Vol. II., 1500-1709.

It is seldom that such wide learning, such historical grasp and insight,

have been employed in their service.--_Atlantic Monthly._

It is a book to be studied rather than merely praised. . . . That its

literary style is perfect is acceptable as a matter of course, and

equally of course is it that the information it contains bears the stamp

of historical verification.--_N. Y. Sun._

THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT

Comprising the text of the Copyright Law of the United States,

and a summary of the Copyright laws at present in force in

the chief countries of the world; together with a report of the

legislation now pending in Great Britain, a sketch of the contest

in the United States, 1837-1891, in behalf of International

Copyright, and certain papers on the development of the

conception of literary property and on the results of the

American law of 1891.

Second edition, revised, with additions, and with the record of

legislation brought down to March, 1896. 8°, gilt top, $1.75.

A perfect arsenal of facts and arguments, carefully elaborated and very

effectively presented. . . . Altogether it constitutes an extremely

valuable history of the development of a very intricate right of

property, and it is as interesting as it is valuable.--_N. Y. Nation._

* * * * *

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK: 27 West 23rd Street. LONDON: 24 Bedford St., Strand.

BY MOSES COIT TYLER

* * * * *

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE DURING THE COLONIAL TIME

New Edition, revised, in two volumes.

Volume I.--1607-1676. Volume II.--1676-1765. Each $2.50.

Agawam edition, 2 vols. in one. 8°, half leather, $3.00.

"In the execution of his work thus far, Professor Tyler has evinced a

skill in the arrangement of his materials, and a masterly power of

combination, which will at once place it in a very eminent rank among

American historical compositions. It is not so much the history of a

special development of literature, as a series of profound and brilliant

studies on the character and genius of a people of whom that literature

was the natural product. The work betrays acute philosophical insight, a

rare power of historical research, and a cultivated literary habit, which

was perhaps no less essential than the two former conditions, to its

successful accomplishment. The style of the author is marked by vigor,

originality, comprehensiveness, and a curious instinct in the selection

of words. In this latter respect, though not in the moulding of

sentences, the reader may perhaps be reminded of the choice and fragrant

vocabulary of Washington Irving, whose words alone often leave an

exquisite odor like the perfume of sweet-brier and arbutus."--GEORGE

RIPLEY, in _The Tribune_.

THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1763-1783

Two volumes, large octavo. Sold separately.

Volume I.--1763-1776. Volume II.--1776-1783. Each $3.00.

This work is the result of an altogether new and original treatment of

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freshly re-written in the light of larger evidence, and after a more

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time in a systematic and complete way, is set forth the inward history of

our Revolution,--the history of its ideas, its spiritual moods, its

passions, as these uttered themselves at the time in the writings of the

two parties of Americans who either promoted or resisted that great

movement.

THREE MEN OF LETTERS

Chapters in Literary Biography and Criticism devoted to

George Berkeley, Timothy Dwight, and Joel Barlow.

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statement, that characterize the author's larger volumes."--_The Nation._

* * * * *

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON.

LANGUAGE.

* * * * *

SOME COMMON ERRORS OF SPEECH.

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ORTHOMETRY.

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with a New and Complete Rhyming Dictionary. By R. F. BREWER,

B.A. 12°, pp. xv. + 376 $2.00

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lays bare, we believe, the complete anatomy of poetry. It affords

interesting quotations, in the way of example, and interesting comments

by distinguished critics upon certain passages from the distinguished

poets."--_N. Y. Sun._

MANUAL OF LINGUISTICS.

An Account of General and English Phonology. By JOHN CLARK, A.M.

8°, pp. lxiii. + 314 $2.00

"Mr. Clark has traced the English language back to its foundations in his

work 'Manual of Linguistics.' It is an interesting theme, and his book

will prove very useful for reference, for he has culled from many sources

and gone over a wide territory."--_Detroit Free Press._

COMPOSITION IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.

A Practical Treatise. By E. GALBRAITH. 16°, cloth $1.00

"The author has drawn fully from the best writers on the subject, and her

book is an epitome of the best thought of all."--_Boston Transcript._

* * * * *

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON.

Transcriber's Notes:

1. Punctuation for abbreviations such as per cent., viz. has been

standardised.

2. There are spelling inconsistencies in proper and place names as well

as within accented characters and hyphenated words. These have been left

as printed.

3. Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected.

4. The remaining corrections are:

Page 36, "Edinburg" changed to "Edinburgh"

Page 153, "faciliate" changed to "facilitate"

Page 202, "conspiciously" changed to "conspicuously"

Page 258, "responsibile" changed to "responsible"

Page 269, "reasearches" changed to "researches"

Page 342, "adminstration" changed to "administration"

Page 392, "substracting" changed to "subtracting"

Page 393, "univeral" changed to "universal"

Page 404, "ieft" changed to "left"

Page 441, "pyschology" changed to "psychology"

Page 452, "polittics" changed to "politics"

Page 457, "at" changed to "as"

Page 470, "Thus" changed to "This"

Page 471, "vocabularly" changed to "vocabulary"

Page 478, "Columbiau" changed to "Columbian"

Page 481, "approxmiately" changed to "approximately"

Page 490, "guaged" changed to "gauged"

Page 490, "Duyckincks" changed to "Duyckinck's"

Page 493, "Meuzies" changed to "Menzies"

Page 494, "I" changed to "1"

Page 497, "pubished" changed to "published"

Page 504, "Allgemeinas" changed to "Allgemeines"

End of Project Gutenberg's A Book for All Readers, by Ainsworth Rand Spofford