(Questions are in bold and Speculation in italics)
1. When, where, and by whom was your text first printed?
1846, New York, C.S. Francis & Co and in Boston by J.H. Francis.
This publisher printed a lot of work from women writers of this era. I wonder if this was an equal opportunity printer or if they solely published female work.
2. How often was your text reprinted? List all of the reprints.
The book “Rosenglory” is found is has been reprinted 13 times:
1. New York, C.S. Francis & Co.; Boston, J.H. Francis, 1847
2. New York, C.S. Francis & Co.; Boston, J.H. Francis 1849
3. New York and Boston, C.S. Francis and Co., 1854
4. New York, J. Miller, 1867
5. New York, C.S. Francis & Co.; Boston, J.H. Francis 1900-1983
6. Dublin, M'Glushan, 1849
7. New York : Arno Press, 1981
8. London, 1847, No publisher listed under the name Lydia Maria Child, formerly Francis
9. New York, C.S. Francis., 1967
10. United States, BiblioBazaar, January 2009 bound in Trade Cloth
11. United States, BiblioBazaar, January 2009 bound in Trade Paper
12. Whitefish, MT, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, September 2007
13. United States, BiblioBazaar, January 2010
Fact and Fiction: A Collection of Stories was published several times by the same American publisher until the mid-20th century. I wonder if the original copy-right ran out and once it entered the public realm modern internet publisher picked it up. The publisher of the latest reprint, BiblioBazaar is primarily an eBook publisher.
3. What was the actual size of your text in inches or centimeters? What information can you find about its physical presence, binding, etc.? Do you think it was expensive or inexpensive?
Fact and Fiction: A Collection of Stories was 19 cm and 284 pages with 4 pages of publishing advertisements in the back. Having seen microfilm of the original printing which was scanned in 1967, I would guess that it was expensive. The pages edges looked very crisp, the paper looked to be of good quality, hardly any tearing or fading and the center bindings didn’t appear frayed.
An online copy of the 1849 edition of the book, which I embedded in my first post, also included images from the front and rear covers. The material looks to be gold embossed leather. I have to imagine it was a very high end book, at least at this reprinting. The scroll work is lovely and still very well preserved. The images are from the University of California Libraries.
4. View the original title page using the digital database or microfilm. What is included there?
Fact and Fiction: A Collection of Stories by L. Maria Child. Author of “Letters from New York,” “Philothea,” “History of Women,” “Flowers for Children,” ETC…ETC.
“Leaf, blossom, blade, hill, va’ley, stream,/The calm unclouded sky,/Still mingle music with my dream,/As in the days gone by.”
New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 252 Broadway
Boston: J.H. Francis, 128 Washington-Street.
1846The poem is William Motherwell’s “Summer Months.” I think it’s beautiful and nostalgic in the particular mid-19th century sort of way. I wonder whether Child picked this poem herself for the title page or if the publisher stuck it on there for some unknown reason. I also love that they listed her previous works, very much like modern books do.
5. If there is more than one edition, compare the title pages. Note any differences here and keep PDFs of these pages, if possible.
The 1849 edition is missing the title page though the dedication and advertisements in the back are the same.
I can’t think of any reason not to include the title page as that is my favorite part of the front matter.
6. What miscellaneous front matter exists? Describe it:
• Frontispiece
• Engravings
• Preface
• Dedication
• Other
The page following the title page has the copyright information: “Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by C.S. Francis & Co. In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.” And then in the lower left corner, “Printed by Munroe & Francis, Boston.”
The dedication reads, “To Anna Loring, the child of my heart, This volume is affectionately dedicated.”
The next page is the table of contents listing all 16 stories with page numbers.
I would very much like to know more about Anna Loring. I don’t know that it would add much to my research on “Rosenglory” but the vagaries of close female friendship are very intriguing to me. Especially after our discussion in class about the intimacies of the birth chamber in relation to Hutchinson and Dyer.
7. How long is your text? Is it broken into volumes and chapters or is it one big chunk? How many volumes and/or chapters? Is the print large and easy to read or dense, with many words on each page and lines close together.
The entire book is 284 pages long and broken down by short story. The text I am focusing on, “Rosenglory” is 20 pages long. The story isn’t broken up into chapters or volumes though it is broken up once by asterisk.
Also in this volume are “Elizabeth Wilson” and “Hilda Silverwing.” I also copied them from the microfilm.m. I also thought it would give me opportunity to compare and contrast the works and decided if I’ve picked the right one.
8. What back matter exists (following the end of a text, usually signified by the word “finis”)? Sometimes lists of subscribers or other works from this printer or bookseller are mentioned here.
The back matter consists of lists of other works by Child that C.S. Francis & Co published and other works by female writers published by the same company.
This reminded me so much of the back of Cosmo. They have pages and pages of ads directed toward women. This list of works is only female authors published by C.S. Francis & Co. I wonder if it is the same concept: here is a book by a woman and so obviously, the women reading this book would also like to know about our other similar offerings.
9. Given all of the above, what might you wish to include as you think about creating a virtual/physical site for your project (your blog)?
I would definitely include images of the front matter. The way it is printed and the content of the title page is so interesting. I also wondered about copyright laws at the time. I think that’s something to research further. I don’t think this will have much bearing on my final research project but I think that it is very useful knowledge to have. And I find the publishing and copyright industries very mysterious.
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