Waverley Library (Quarto Edition)

ON NOVEMBER 18, 1879, the first issue of the Waverley Library appeared. It was advertised as:

A Fifty Cent Novel for Five Cents!
in the Popular Library Form.
Each Issue Complete and Unabridged,
covering the field of
Love and Society Romance.
Wholesome, Vigorous and Fresh

Each issue a complete novel by an author of established reputation—perfectly pure in tone, spirited and captivating in story, as the title "Waverley" implies. Everything to please and nothing to avoid—

Wholesome, Vigorous and Fresh
No long-drawn-out "serial" of the popular weekly,
that costs weeks of waiting and much money, but this
very serial in neat and attractive form for
the small sum of five cents.

No inferior or exceptionable productions; no tedious
narrative or weak sentimentalism, nothing but good
strong stories of to-day.

Elsewhere it was advertised to contain—

American copyright novels and the cream of foreign
novelists, unabridged. . . . The only young ladies'
Library of first-class copyright novels.

The Waverley Library (Fig. 82) when first issued was 11 ½ by 8 ½ inches in size, and usually had sixteen three-column pages of small type, although occasionally a number had twenty pages. There was an illustration on the front page, but there were no wrappers. It appeared weekly on Tuesdays and was published by Beadle and Adams, 98 William Street, New York. English reprints largely predominated. There were also novels which had previously been published in Norman Munro's Riverside Library. Possibly when Munro failed in 1878, Beadle purchased the plates of this "library."

In No. 236, which was published May 20, 1884, it was announced that the "Waverley Library will hereafter be published in the more convenient pocket form, commencing a new series." Number I was ready May 27, 1884. Without a break, therefore, the new series began and continued where the old left off. Many of the novels of the quarto edition were reprinted in the octavo.

Fig 82. The quarto Waverley Library
Between 1879 and 1884, 236 numbers were issued
Size of original, 11 ½ x 8 ½

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