Beadle's Boy's Library
of Sport, Story and Adventure (Octavo Edition)
THE QUARTO Boy's Library ended with No. 121 on the second of April,
1884. It was succeeded by the octavo edition, No. 1 appearing April 19, and
thereafter it appeared weekly on Saturdays. Most of the early numbers were reprints
of the quarto edition, but later many new titles were added until the complete
series of 319 numbers ended on May 24, 1890, after a run of six years and thirty-five
days. Another number was announced, but was never issued.
The octavo Boy's Library (Fig. 85) is 8¼
by 5¾ inches in size, contains 32 pages per number, and has a black
line cut on the front page. In every way it is identical in appearance with
the quarto edition except in size. The type is generally fairly readable, running
17 to 21 lines to 2 inches. The stories are mostly of adventures, and were intended,
of course, primarily for boys.
After Ivers took over the Beadle establishment, he reprinted the first 64
numbers. They have exactly the same contents as the originals although some
of the titles were slightly changed. The first number appeared January 8, 1899,
and the last March 25, 1900. Some sets were printed with no wrappers and the
illustration on the front page in black only, others had extra wrappers in colors,
perhaps to compete with the novels of other publishers, while still others were
printed throughout in blue ink. These are not listed here because they do not
belong to the Beadle publications.
Fig 85. The octavo Beadle's Boy's Library
There were 319 numbers between 1884 and 1890.
NATURAL SIZE
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