Many collectors do not consider series like the Loeb Classical Library true books in series, a term they reserve for fiction series that share a common set of characters. This distinction is made quite clearly by James Keeline, the author of today's guest editorial, which explores how series collectors often are led astray by phantom titles.
James spent over a dozen years managing the children's bookstore, The Prince and The Pauper, in San Diego, California. He is considered an expert on juvenile books in series, such as those of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and he has presented annually at the Popular Culture Association since 1992. James writes:
...many collectors make a distinction between publisher series (almost random collections of books unified only by format and publisher) and regular fiction series (which often share a common set of characters and sometimes a continuing story).
For the publisher series, some use the term "publisher library" to make this distinction. When someone collects "series books" they are seldom interested in publisher libraries:
Titles from The Library of America, a "publisher's library"
I agree that the existence of a series tends to inspire collecting. Sometimes it is important to read volumes in order, so people often will wait until they collect all, or at least the early volumes of a series, before reading an entire series.
Some series, especially juvenile series books, promoted coming titles even when publication was over a year away. Because things change in the fortunes of publishers, series, and authors, many of these "previously announced titles" never actually got published. Such titles are called "phantom titles" among series collectors.
Sometimes a phantom title resulted from a mere change in the name of a planned title. For example, war themes were added to several series during World War I, and wartime titles replaced the previously announced names of those same titles.
In some cases, a previously announced title in a series may not have been published if sales of a series did not meet expectations. The scarce Stratemeyer Syndicate series, the White Ribbon Boys, had but a single volume published, White Ribbon Boys of Chester (Cupples & Leon, 1916), even though the publishers advertised and described the plot for a second book (White Ribbon Boys of Long Shore). This occurred with other Stratemeyer Syndicate "series" as well:
One of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's most popular fictional series
One "series" had a single volume published, plus advertisements for 11 other volumes which were unpublished phantom titles.
There are even cases of "phantom series," where a series advertised by a publisher was in fact never published. Sometimes series fans play jokes on their colleagues by listing phantom series in reference volumes.
Some publishers had a practice of listing other writings by an "author" in their stable. Occasionally, these were titles that were planned but not published; other times they were completely fictitious titles for which no actual publication was ever intended.
It can be difficult to prove that a book was never published, and some collectors will keep phantom titles on their want lists. When booksellers advertise for these, it reinforces the false notion that such phantom titles may actually exist. Copyright registrations and listings in Publishers' Weekly magazine, Cumulative Book Index and its predecessors can help. Library listings like WorldCat are worth checking, but since many series books were shunned by public libraries this is not a thorough indication of whether a book was published.
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