James Keeline honors us with today's Guest Editorial, which takes a look at the concept of all published as respects one of his previous Guest Editorials about juvenile books-in-series....
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"All Published" can take on some interesting connotations in certain areas of book collecting.
In my own area of special interest, juvenile series books, there are a number of cases where the author or syndicate or publishers planned additional volumes which were not issued.
Among juvenile series book collectors, when a title is advertised but not published, it is called a "phantom title." These are most frequently seen at the end of a series where a promised volume is never published. These promises can be in the form of an advertising page or, more likely, a brief mention of the next adventure for the characters at the end of the story.
A phantom title can occur in the middle of a series when some circumstance requires a change in title or sometimes the entire venue of a story. For example, several series had WWI titles which substituted for the planned next title. Other times the publisher changed their mind on which title would sell best by the time the book was issued.
In the Tom Swift series, copies of Air Glider (1912) make reference to Tom Swift in Giant Land in the list of titles on the copyright page. This book was published as Tom Swift in Captivity (1912). Copies of Captivity have a "next title" announcement at the end of the story for Tom Swift and His Electric Camera instead of Wizard Camera (1912):
The Stratemeyer Syndicate clearly felt that series were the way to succeed in juvenile book sales. On several occasions Edward Stratemeyer told prospective writers that he was only interested in stories that could be the first volume in a series. When The Trail Boys of the Plains (Dodd, Mead, 1915; Sully [1918]) was published it ended with:
They had more than a week of adventures on the trail, had accomplished an important errand satisfactorily, and, secretly, were hoping for other adventures during their vacation.
The Nowadays Girls in the Adirondacks (Dodd, Mead 1915) is a little more specific about upcoming titles on its next-to-last page:
And those of you who care to follow the future fortunes, fun and frolic of our friends may do so in the next volume of this series, to be called: "The Nowadays Girls on Casco Bay; or, The Treasure Box of Orr's Island."
However, these books, issued at high prices, did not find wide sales so additional volumes were not ordered by the publisher.
Another Stratemeyer Syndicate example is The White Ribbon Boys of Chester (Cupples & Leon, 1916), which was intended to begin a series about a group of boys interested in the temperance movement in the years before national prohibition. The second volume (never published) not only was announced at the end of the first story, but there also was an advertisement that gave a brief description of this phantom title (The White Ribbon Boys at Long Shore) that appeared in Chester with a few other Cupples & Leon books of the period:
An example outside the Stratemeyer Syndicate is interesting because of the ambition it represents. The Mystery of the Missing Eyebrows was the first volume in a planned (but not completed) twelve-volume Newspaper Boys series by "Stephen Rudd" and published by R. H. Gore in 1921. The proposed titles were listed on the page after the copyright page. The post-text ad pages gave about a paragraph description for each of the next four titles. The Who Was Who in America (v. 6) entry for Robert Hayes Gore identifies him as a newspaper publisher and Stephen Rudd as his pseudonym:
The completist tendencies of collectors is especially strong among series book collectors. Hence, many want lists circulate that seek phantom titles. Particularly troublesome are cases where a publisher announced an entire series which was not published. One example of this is the Ben Lightbody series, for which two titles were announced: Ben Lightbody, Special Agent; or, Seizing the First Chance to Make Good, and Ben Lightbody's Biggest Puzzle; or, Running the Double Ghost Down to Earth. These ads appeared in Altemus books in the 1910-13 period but the books were never issued:
Knowing that collectors love mysteries and some enjoy a life-long pursuit of books they may never find, there have been some descriptions by collectors of series which were never planned or advertised by any publisher. A couple examples of these have appeared in April issues of series book magazines. It is particularly cruel to include such a series in a reference volume about boys' series books....
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