A Book for All Readers Part 35

Following close upon Roorbach's Bibliotheca Americana in chronological order, we have next two bibliographies covering American book issues from 1861 to 1871. These were compiled by a New York book dealer named James Kelly, and were ent.i.tled The American Catalogue of Books, (original and reprint) published in the United States from Jan., 1861, to Jan., 1866, [and from Jan., 1866, to Jan., 1871] with date of publication, size, price, and publisher's name. The first volume contained a supplement, with list of pamphlets on the civil war, and also a list of the publications of learned societies. These very useful and important catalogues cover ten years of American publis.h.i.+ng activity, adding also to their own period many t.i.tles omitted by Roorbach in earlier years.

Kelly's catalogues number 307 and 444 pages respectively, and, like Roorbach's, they give both author and t.i.tle in a single alphabet. Names of publishers are given, with place and year of publication, and retail price, but without number of pages, and with no alphabet of subjects.

Next after Kelly's catalogue came the first issue of the "American Catalogue," which, with its successive volumes (all published in quarto form) ably represents the bibliography of our country during the past twenty-five years. The t.i.tle of the first volume, issued in 1880, reads "American Catalogue of books in print and for sale (including reprints and importations) July 1, 1876. Compiled under direction of F. Leypoldt, by L. E. Jones." This copious repository of book-t.i.tles was in two parts: (1) Authors, and (2) Subject-index. Both are of course in alphabetical order, and the t.i.tles of books are given with considerable abbreviation.

The fact that its plan includes many t.i.tles of books imported from Great Britain, (as supplying information to book-dealers and book-buyers) prevents it from being considered as a bibliography of strictly American publications. Still, it is the only approximately full American bibliography of the publications current twenty-five years ago. As such, its volumes are indispensable in every library, and should be in its earliest purchase of works of reference. The limitation of the catalogue to books still in print--_i. e._, to be had of the publishers at the time of its issue, of course precludes it from being ranked as a universal American bibliography.

The first issue in 1880 was followed, in 1885, by the "American Catalogue, 1876-1884: books recorded (including reprints and importations), under editorial direction of R. R. Bowker, by Miss A. I.

Appleton." This appeared in one volume, but with two alphabets; one being authors and t.i.tles, and the other an alphabet of subjects. As this volume included eight years issues of the American press, the next bibliography published covered the next ensuing six years, and included the books recorded from July, 1884 to July, 1890. This appeared in 1891, edited with care by Miss Appleton and others.

In 1896 appeared its successor, the "American Catalogue, 1890-95.

Compiled under the editorial direction of R. R. Bowker." This catalogue records in its first volume, or alphabet of authors: (1) author; (2) size of book; (3) year of issue; (4) price; (5) publisher's name. The names of places where published are not given with the t.i.tle, being rendered unnecessary by the full alphabetical list of publishers which precedes, and fixes the city or town where each published his books. This same usage is followed in succeeding issues of the American Catalogue.

This indispensable bibliography of recent American books, in addition to its regular alphabets of authors and t.i.tles (the latter under first words and in the same alphabet with the authors) and the succeeding alphabet of subjects, prints a full list of the publications of the United States government, arranged by departments and bureaus; also a list of the publications of State governments, of Societies, and of books published in series.

This last issue has 939 pages. Its only defects (aside from its inevitable omissions of many unrecorded books) are the double alphabet, and the want of collation, or an indication of the number of pages in each work, which should follow every t.i.tle. Its cost in bound form is $15, at which the two preceding American catalogues 1876-84, and 1884 to 1890 can also be had, while the catalogue of books in print in 1876, published in 1880, is quite out of print, though a copy turns up occasionally from some book-dealer's stock.

The American Catalogue has now become a quinquennial issue, gathering the publications of five years into one alphabet; and it is supplemented at the end of every year by the "Annual American Catalogue," started in 1886, which gives, in about 400 pages, in its first alphabet, collations of the books of the year (a most important feature, unfortunately absent from the quinquennial American Catalogue.) Its second alphabet gives authors, t.i.tles, and sometimes subject-matters, but without the distribution into subject-divisions found in the quinquennial catalogue; and the t.i.tles are greatly abridged from the full record of its first alphabet. Its price is $3.50 each year.

And this annual, in turn, is made up from the catalogues of t.i.tles of all publications, which appear in the _Publishers' Weekly_, the carefully edited organ of the book publis.h.i.+ng interests in the United States. This periodical, which will be found a prime necessity in every library, originated in New York, in 1855, as the "American Publishers' Circular,"

and has developed into the recognized authority in American publications, under the able management of R. R. Bowker and A. Growoll. For three dollars a year, it supplies weekly and monthly alphabetical lists of whatever comes from the press, in book form, as completely as the t.i.tles can be gathered from every source. It gives valuable notes after most t.i.tles, defining the scope and idea of the work, with collations, features which are copied into the Annual American Catalogue.

I must not omit to mention among American bibliographies, although published in London, and edited by a foreigner, Mr. N. Trubner's "Bibliographical Guide to American literature: a cla.s.sed list of books published in the United States during the last forty years." This book appeared in 1859, and is a carefully edited bibliography, arranged systematically in thirty-two divisions of subjects, filling 714 pages octavo. It gives under each topic, an alphabet of authors, followed by t.i.tles of the works, given with approximate fullness, followed by place and year of publication, but without publishers' names. The number of pages is also given where ascertained, and the price of the work quoted in sterling English money. This work, by a competent German-English book-publisher of London, is preceded by a brief history of American literature, and closes with a full index of authors whose works are catalogued in it.

We come now to by far the most comprehensive and ambitious attempt to cover not only the wide field of American publications, but the still more extensive field of books relating to America, which has ever yet been made. I refer to the "Bibliotheca Americana; a dictionary of books relating to America," by Joseph Sabin, begun more than thirty years ago, in 1868, and still unfinished, its indefatigable compiler having died in 1881, at the age of sixty. This vast bibliographical undertaking was originated by a variously-gifted and most energetic man, not a scholar, but a bookseller and auctioneer, born in England. Mr. Sabin is said to have compiled more catalogues of private libraries that have been brought to the auctioneer's hammer, than any man who ever lived in America. He bought and sold, during nearly twenty years, old and rare books, in a shop in Na.s.sau street, New York, which was the resort of book collectors and bibliophiles without number. He made a specialty of Americana, and of early printed books in English literature, crossing the Atlantic twenty-five times to gather fresh stores with which to feed his hungry American customers. During all these years, he worked steadily at his _magnum opus_, the bibliography of America, carrying with him in his many journeys and voyages, in cars or on ocean steams.h.i.+ps, copy and proofs of some part of the work. There have been completed about ninety parts, or eighteen thick volumes of nearly 600 pages each; and since his death the catalogue has been brought down to the letter S, mainly by Mr.

Wilberforce Eames, librarian of the Lenox Library, New York. Though its ultimate completion must be regarded as uncertain, the great value to all librarians, and students of American bibliography or history, of the work so far as issued, can hardly be over-estimated. Mr. Sabin had the benefit in revising the proofs of most of the work, of the critical knowledge and large experience of Mr. Charles A. Cutter, the librarian of the Boston Athenaeum Library, whose catalogue of the books in that inst.i.tution, in five goodly volumes, is a monument of bibliographical learning and industry. Sabin's Dictionary is well printed, in large, clear type, the t.i.tles being frequently annotated, and prices at auction sales of the rarer and earlier books noted. Every known edition of each work is given, and the initials of public libraries in the United States, to the number of thirteen, in which the more important works are found, are appended.

In not a few cases, where no copy was known to the compiler in a public collection, but was found in a private library, the initials of its owner were given instead.

This extensive bibliography was published solely by subscription, only 635 copies being printed at $2.50 a part, so that its cost to those subscribing was about $225 unbound, up to the time of its suspension. The first part appeared January 1, 1867, although Vol. I. bears date New York, 1868. It records most important t.i.tles in full, with (usually) marks denoting omissions where such are made. In the case of many rare books relating to America (and especially those published prior to the 18th century) the collations are printed so as to show what each line of the original t.i.tle embraces, _i. e._ with vertical marks or dashes between the matter of the respective lines. This careful description is invaluable to the bibliographical student, frequently enabling him to identify editions, or to solve doubts as to the genuineness of a book-t.i.tle in hand. The collation by number of pages is given in all cases where the book has been seen, or reported fully to the editor. The order of description as to each t.i.tle is as follows: (1) Place of publication (2) publisher (3) year (4) collation and size of book. Notes in a smaller type frequently convey information of other editions, of prices in various sales, of minor works by the same writer, etc.

The fullness which has been aimed at in Sabin's American bibliography is seen in the great number of sermons and other specimens of pamphlet literature which it chronicles. It gives also the t.i.tles of most early American magazines, reviews, and other periodicals, except newspapers, which are generally omitted, as are maps also. As an example of the often minute cataloguing of the work, I may mention that no less than eight pages are occupied with a list of the various publications and editions of books by Dr. Jedediah Morse, an author of whom few of the present generation of Americans have ever heard. He was the earliest American geographer who published any comprehensive books upon the subject, and his numerous Gazetteers and Geographies, published from 1784 to 1826, were constantly reprinted, until supplanted by more full, if not more accurate works.

Upon the whole, Sabin's great work, although so far from being finished, is invaluable as containing immeasurably more and fuller t.i.tles than any other American bibliography. It is also the only extensive work on the subject which covers all periods, although the books of the last thirty years must chiefly be excepted as not represented. As a work of reference, while its cost and scarcity may prevent the smaller public libraries from possessing it, it is always accessible in the libraries of the larger cities, where it is among the foremost works to be consulted in any research involving American publications, or books of any period or country relating to America, or its numerous sub-divisions.

I may now mention, much more cursorily, some other bibliographies pertaining to our country. The late Henry Stevens, who died in 1886, compiled a "Catalogue of the American Books in the Library of the British Museum." This was printed by the Museum authorities in 1856, and fills 754 octavo pages. Its editor was a highly accomplished bibliographer and book-merchant, born in Vermont, but during the last forty years of his life resided in London, where he devoted himself to his profession with great learning and a.s.siduity. He published many catalogues of various stocks of books collected by him, under such t.i.tles as "Bibliotheca historica," "Bibliotheca Americana," etc., in which the books were carefully described, often with notes ill.u.s.trating their history or their value. He became an authority upon rare books and early editions, and made a valuable catalogue of the Bibles in the Caxton exhibition at London, in 1877, with bibliographical commentary. He was for years chief purveyor of the British Museum Library for its American book purchases, and aided the late James Lenox in building up that rich collection of Americana and editions of the Scriptures which is now a part of the New York Public Library. His catalogue of the American books in the British Museum, though now over forty years old, and supplanted by the full alphabetical catalogue of that entire library since published, is a valuable contribution to American bibliography.

Mr. Stevens was one of the most acute and learned bibliographers I have known. He was a man of marked individuality and independent views; with a spice of eccentricity and humor, which crept into all his catalogues, and made his notes highly entertaining reading. Besides his services to the British Museum Library, in building up its n.o.ble collection of Americana, and in whose rooms he labored for many years, with the aid of Panizzi and his successors, whom he aided in return, Stevens collected mult.i.tudes of the books which now form the choice treasures of the Lenox library, the Carter Brown library, at Providence, the Library of Congress, and many more American collections. To go with him through any lot of Americana, in one of his enterprising visits to New York, where he sometimes came to market his overflowing stores picked up in London and on the continent, was a rare treat. Every book, almost, brought out some verbal criticism, anecdote or reminiscence of his book-hunting experiences, which began in America, and extended all over Europe.

He was not only an indefatigable collector, but a most industrious and accurate bibliographer, doing more work in that field, probably, than any other American. He wrote a singularly careful, though rapid hand, as plain and condensed as print, and in days before modern devices for manifolding writing were known, he copied out his invoices in duplicate or triplicate in his own hand, with t.i.tles in full, and frequent descriptive notes attached. His many catalogues are notable for the varied learning embodied. He was a most intelligent and vigilant book collector for more than forty years, his early labors embracing towns in New York and New England, as purveyor for material for Peter Force, of Was.h.i.+ngton, whose American Archives were then in course of preparation.

Among the library collectors who absorbed large portions of his gathered treasures, were James Lenox, Jared Sparks, George Livermore, John Carter Brown, Henry C. Murphy, George Brinley, the American Geographical Society, and many historical societies. He was an authority on all the early voyages, and wrote much upon them. No one knew more about early Bibles than Henry Stevens.

His enterprise and ambition for success led him to bold and sometimes extensive purchases. He bought about 1865, the library of Baron von Humboldt, and this and other large ventures embarra.s.sed him much in later years. He became the owner of the Franklin ma.n.u.scripts, left in London by the great man's grandson, and collected during many years a library of Frankliniana, which came to the Library of Congress when the Franklin ma.n.u.scripts were purchased for the State Department in 1881.

He was proud of his country and his State, always signing himself "Henry Stevens, of Vermont." His book-plate had engraved beneath his name, the t.i.tles, "G. M. B.: F. S. A." The last, of course, designated him as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, but the first puzzled even his friends, until it was interpreted as signifying "Green Mountain Boy." His brother used jocosely to a.s.sure me that it really meant "Grubber of Musty Books."

As to his prices for books, while some collectors complained of them as "very stiff," they appear, when compared with recent sales of Americana, at auction and in sale catalogues, to be quite moderate. The late historian Motley told me that Mr. Stevens charged more than any one for Dutch books relating to America; but Mr. Motley's measure of values was gauged by the low prices of Dutch booksellers which prevailed during his residence in the Netherlands, for years before the keen demand from America had rendered the numerous Dutch tracts of the West India Company, etc., more scarce and of greater commercial value than they bore at the middle of this century.

As treating of books by American authors, though not so much a complete bibliography of their works, as a critical history, with specimens selected from each writer, Duyckinck's "Cyclopaedia of American Literature" deserves special mention. The last edition appeared at Philadelphia, in 1875, in two large quarto volumes. Equally worthy of note is the compilation by E. C. Stedman and Ellen M. Hutchinson, in eleven volumes, ent.i.tled "Library of American Literature," New York, 1887-90. A most convenient hand-book of bibliographical reference is Oscar F. Adams's "Dictionary of American Authors," Boston, 1897, which gives in a compact duodecimo volume, the name and period of nearly every American writer, with a brief list of his princ.i.p.al works, and their date of publication, in one alphabet.

Of notable catalogues of books relating to America, rather than of American publications, should be named White Kennet's "Bibliotheca Americana primordia," the earliest known catalogue devoted to American bibliography, London, 1713; O. Rich, Catalogue of Books relating to America, 1500-1700, London, 1832; Rich, "Bibliotheca Americana nova,"

books printed between 1700 and 1844, two volumes, London, 1835-46; H.

Harrisse, "Bibliotheca Americana vetustissima," New York, 1866, and its supplement, Paris, 1872, both embracing rare early Americana, published from 1492 to 1551. This is a critically edited bibliography of the rarest books concerning America that appeared in the first half century after its discovery.

The important field of American local history has given birth to many bibliographies. The earliest to be noted is H. E. Ludewig's "Literature of American Local History," New York, 1846. Thirty years later came F. B.

Perkins's "Check List for American Local History," Boston, 1876; followed by A. P. C. Griffin's "Index of articles upon American Local History in historical collections," Boston, 1889, and by his "Index of the literature of American local history in collections published in 1890-95," Boston, 1896. Closely allied to the catalogues of city, town, and county histories, come the bibliographies of genealogies and family histories, of which the last or 4th edition of D. S. Durrie's "Bibliographia genealogica Americana; an alphabetical index to American genealogies in county and town histories, printed genealogies, and kindred works," Albany, 1895, is the most comprehensive and indispensable. This work gives us an alphabet of family names, under each of which are grouped the t.i.tles of books in which that special name is treated, with citation of the page. It also gives the name and date of publication of the special family genealogies which are separately printed, whether book or pamphlet, with number of pages in each. The work is by a librarian, to whose laborious diligence Americans are deeply indebted.

Among other bibliographies of genealogy are Munsell's "American Genealogist: a catalogue of family histories," Albany, 1897. This work aims to give the t.i.tles of all separately printed American genealogies, in an alphabet of family names, giving t.i.tles in full, with place and year of publication, name of publisher, and collation, or number of pages.

For the mult.i.tudinous public doc.u.ments of the United States, consult B.

P. Poore's "Descriptive catalogue of the government publications of the United States, 1775-1881," Was.h.i.+ngton, 1885, and F. A. Crandall, Check list of public doc.u.ments, debates and proceedings from 1st to 53d Congress (1789-1895), Was.h.i.+ngton, 1895; also,

Comprehensive index to the publications of the United States government, 1889-1893. The same--United States Catalogue of Public Doc.u.ments, 1893 to 1895, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1896. Several biennial or annual lists of United States Doc.u.ments have followed.

As supplementing these extensive catalogues, we have in the Appendix to the "American Catalogue" of 1885 a List of United States Government publications from 1880 to 1884; in that of 1891 a List from 1884 to 1890; and in that of 1896 a List covering the years 1891 to 1895.

A most important recent bibliography is found in H. C. Bolton's "Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665-1895,"

Was.h.i.+ngton, 1897.

There are also many sale catalogues of American books, with prices, some of which may be noted, _e. g._ J. R. Smith, Bibliotheca Americana, London, 1865; F. Muller, Catalogue of books and pamphlets relating to America, Amsterdam, 1877, and later years. Ternaux-Compans, "Bibliotheque Americaine;" books printed before 1700, Paris, 1837: P. Tromel, "Bibliotheque Americaine," Leipzig, 1861: D. B. Warden, "Bibliotheque Americaine," Paris, 1840: R. Clarke & Co., "Bibliotheca Americana,"

Cincinnati, 1874, 1878, 1887, 1891, and 1893.

There are, besides, important catalogues of some private libraries, devoted wholly or chiefly to books relating to America. Among these, the most extensive and costly is John R. Bartlett's catalogue of the library of J. Carter Brown, of Providence, in four sumptuous volumes, with fac-similes of early t.i.tle-pages, of which bibliography only fifty copies were printed. It is ent.i.tled, "Bibliotheca Americana: a catalogue of books relating to North and South America," 1482-1800, 4 vols. large 8vo., Providence, 1870-82. The Carter Brown Library is now the richest collection of Americana in any private library in the world.

Among catalogues of libraries sold by auction, and composed largely of American books, are those of John A. Rice, New York, 1870: W. Menzies, New York, 1875: George Brinley, in five volumes, sold 1878 to 1886: Henry C. Murphy, New York, 1884: S. L. M. Barlow, New York, 1889: and Brayton Ives, New York, 1891.

The wide field of bibliography of English literature has given birth to many books. Only the more comprehensive can here be noted.

R. Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, in four quarto volumes, Edinburgh, 1824, although now old, is still an indispensable work of reference, giving mult.i.tudes of t.i.tles of English books and pamphlets not found in any other bibliography. It of course abounds in errors, most of which have been copied in Allibone's Dictionary of English literature. This extensive work is a monument of labor, to which the industrious compiler devoted many years, dying of too intense study, at Glasgow, at the early age of forty-five, in the year 1819. The issue of the work in 1824, being thus posthumous, its errors and omissions are largely accounted for by the author's inability to correct the press. The plan of the work is unique. Vols. 1 and 2 contain the alphabet of authors and t.i.tles, with dates and publishers' prices when known. Vols. 3 and 4 contain an alphabet of subjects, in which the t.i.tles re-appear, with a key alphabet in italic letters attached to each t.i.tle, by which reference is made to the author-catalogue, at a fixed place, where all the works of the author are recorded.

The work is printed in small type, with two crowded columns on a page, thus containing an enormous amount of matter. The key is quickly learned, and by its aid, and the alphabet of subjects, the librarian can find out the authors of many anonymous books. Watt is the only general bibliography of English literature which gives most of the obscure writers and their works.

Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, in its second edition, enlarged by H. G. Bohn, is a most indispensable bibliography.

This work is arranged alphabetically by authors' names, and aims to record all important books published in Great Britain, from the earliest times to about A. D. 1834. It is in eleven parts, or 6 vols. 16 mo. of very portable size, Lond., 1857-65. While it gives collations of the more important works, with publishers and dates, it fails to record many editions of the same work. Its quoted prices represent the original publisher's price, with very frequent additions of the sale prices obtained at book auctions. The chief defect of Lowndes' Manual is its total lack of any index of subjects.

S. Austin Allibone's "Critical Dictionary of English literature,"

Philadelphia, 1858-71, 3 volumes, with supplement by John F. Kirk, in 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1891, is a copious reference book, which, in spite of its many errors and crudities, should be in all libraries. It contains in abbreviated form most of the t.i.tles in Watt and Lowndes, with the addition of American authors, and of British books published since the period covered by Lowndes. The three volumes of Allibone accompany the t.i.tles of works by noted authors with many critical remarks, copied mostly from reviews and literary journals. This feature of the book, which makes it rather a work of literary history and criticism than a bibliography pure and simple, has been dropped in Mr. Kirk's supplement, which thus becomes properly a bibliography. The publications of England and America, from about 1850 to 1890, are more fully chronicled in this work of Kirk than in any other bibliography.

The important "English Catalogue of Books," from A. D. 1835 to 1897, in 5 vols., with its valuable Index of Subjects, in 4 vols., from 1857 up to 1889, is so constantly useful as to be almost indispensable in a public library. It records, in provokingly brief one-line t.i.tles, with publisher's name, year of issue, and price, all books published in Great Britain whose t.i.tles could be secured. It thus subserves the same purpose for English publications, which the American Catalogue fulfills for those of the United States. Both are in effect greatly condensed bibliographies, enabling the librarian to locate most of the published literature in the English language for many years back. The English catalogue, from 1897 to date, is supplemented by its annual issues, ent.i.tled "the English Catalogue of Books for 1898," etc.

I have said that accuracy should be one of the cardinal aims of the librarian: and this because in that profession it is peculiarly important. Bibliography is a study which approaches very nearly to the rank of an exact science; and the practice of it, in application to the daily work of the librarian, is at once a school of accuracy, and a test of ability. A habit of a.n.a.lytical methods should be a.s.siduously cultivated, without which much time will be lost in fruitless searches in the wrong books to find what one wants. As a single ill.u.s.tration of this need of method, suppose that you want to find the t.i.tle of a certain book with its full description, a want likely to occur every hour in the day, and sometimes many times an hour. The book is perhaps Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon,--9 vols., London, 1827, and your object is to trace its t.i.tle, published price, etc., among the numerous bibliographies of literature. You begin by a simple act of a.n.a.lysis--thus. This is a London, not an American book--hence it is useless to look in any American catalogue. It is written in English, so you are dispensed from looking for it in any French or other foreign bibliography. Its date is 1827, London. Therefore among the three leading English reference books in bibliography, which are Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, Lowndes'

Bibliographer's Manual, and the English Catalogue, you at once eliminate the former as not containing the book. Why do you do this? Because Watt's great work, in four huge quartos, though invaluable for the early English literature, stops with books published before the date of its issue, 1824. Your book is published in 1827, and of course could not appear in a catalogue of 1824. Shall you refer then to the English Catalogue for its t.i.tle? No, because the five volumes of that useful work (though some imperfect book lists were published earlier), begin with the year 1835, and the book you seek bears date of 1827. You are then reduced, by this simple process of a.n.a.lyzing in your mind the various sources of information, and rejecting all except one, namely Lowndes'

Bibliographer's Manual, to a search in a single catalogue for your t.i.tle.

This simplifies matters greatly, and saves all the time which might otherwise have been lost in hunting fruitlessly through several works of reference. Lowndes' invaluable Manual was published in 1834, and though a second edition, edited by Bohn, appeared thirty years later, it does not contain books published after that date, unless they are later editions of works issued earlier. You find in it your Scott's Napoleon, date 1827, with its published price, 4. 14. 6, and an account of other later editions of the book. Of course you will observe that it is necessary to know what period of years is covered by the various bibliographies, and to carry those dates perpetually in your memory, in order thus to simplify searches, and save time. Once learned, you will have the comfort of knowing where to turn for light upon any book, and the faculty of accurate memory will reward the pains taken to acquire it.

I must not omit to include, in noting the more useful and important English bibliographies, the very copious list of works appended to each biography of British writers, in the new "Dictionary of National Biography," Lond., 1885-1900. This extensive work is nearly finished in about 65 volumes, and const.i.tutes a rich thesaurus of information about all British authors, except living ones.

Living characters, considered notable, and brief note of their books, are recorded in "Men and Women of the Time," 15th ed. London, 1899--but this book, although highly useful, is far from being a bibliography.

I should not omit to mention among useful librarians' aids, the "Book Prices Current; record of prices at which books have been sold at auction." This London publication began with the year 1887. No sales are reported of books bringing less than one pound sterling. The book-sales of 1898 were reported in 1899 of this issue, and the book is published in each case the next year. The similar catalogue ent.i.tled "American Book Prices Current" was begun with 1895, being compiled from the sale catalogues of American auctioneers, for that year, and the prices brought at auction in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, are recorded for all notable books, but limited to works bringing as much as $3 or upward. Five years' reports, in as many volumes, have now been issued, and the publication is to be continued. Its utility of course consists in informing librarians or collectors of the most recent auction values of books. At the same time, a word of caution is required, since it is not safe to judge of average commercial values, from any isolated bid at an auction sale.

A very useful cla.s.sed catalogue, published by the British Museum library, and edited by G. K. Fortescue, an a.s.sistant librarian, is the so-called "Subject-index to modern works," of which three volumes have appeared, beginning with the accessions of 1880-85, each covering five years additions of new works, in all European languages, to that library. The third volume embraces the years 1890 to 1895, and appeared in 1896. As this is not confined to works in English, it should be cla.s.sed with universal bibliography. As containing most of the latest books of any note, all three volumes are important aids to research. They are printed in large type, in which it is a refreshment to the eye to read t.i.tles, after the small and obscure print of Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, and the but little better type of Lowndes' Manual, and of the English Catalogue. A collation of pages is also added in most cases, and the importance of this can hardly be overrated. These catalogues of the British Museum Library abound in pamphlets, English, French, German, Italian, etc., evincing how large a share of attention is given to the minor literature coming from the press in the more recent years.