John W. Lovell Company, New York

John W. Lovell (1851-1932) began publishing on his own imprint in 1878 in New York. Lovell was well known as a publisher of books that were not protected by copyright laws. It reprinted cheap reprints for the masses both in series of paperbound and cloth volumes. Lovell's Library was probably its single greatest achievement in terms of popularity.

Lovell tried to combine all the publishers of cheap reprints into one consortium. This was done in 1890 as the United States Book Company. It went broke in 1893. It was the parent company of numerous publishing imprints including the International Book Company, National Book Company, Lovell, Coryell, and Company and more.

For a nice review of Lovell see: http://www.horatioalgersociety.net/newsboys/newsboys2000-2009/nb2002-07jul-aug.pdf

Rugby Edition
The Rugby Edition’s book list has 212 titles of books for boys and girls. It contains 18 Mayne Reid books which also could be purchased as a set for $7.50. Individually the volumes costs 75 cents. These books had a dust jacket. The cover of the jacket has the title, series name and author in text. The back cover has a list of the titles in the series. This Edition was published in 1889-1890.

Another earlier Rugby Edition in 1881 by John Wurtele Lovell did not include any Mayne Reid titles although the same cover design was used. (The base of the spine in the older books has JWL whereas the newer books has Lovell.)

Rugby Edition
Afloat in the Forest
Boy Hunters
Boy Slaves
Boy Tar
Bruin
Bush Boys
Cliff Climbers
Desert Home
Flag of Distress
Forest Exiles
Giraffe Hunters
Ocean Waifs
Odd People
Plant Hunters
Ran Away to Sea
Stories about Animals
Young Voyagers

Cloth. Different colors noted. Gold gilt design. 12 mo.

 



Lovell’s Aldine Edition of 12 Mos.
This series has only one Mayne Reid title in its list- Flag of Distress

It was published in 1891.
This volume is 12 mo.



Adventure Series
The Hovendon Company published the Adventure Series. The only books from this series that I have seen are ones with a John W. Lovell title page imprint. The cover is the same as that used by Frank Lovell in both of its Wild Adventure Series. I do not know if John W. Lovell actually published a Mayne Reid title in an Adventure Series but a picture of this book is included here for completeness. It was published in 1892-1893.

The two Mayne Red titles seen as of this time:
Bush Boys
Afloat in the Forest



Unknown Series
This cover format was used by several other publishers including Worthington & Co, Perry Mason and the Industrial Publishing Co. The Lovell book has an 1889 Worthington copyright, thus it was probably published in the early 1890's.

Worthington's Mayne Reid list is noted below. I suspect that this Lovell format has been seen with each title.

1. Afloat in the Forest
2. Boy Hunters
3. Boy Slaves
4. Boy Tar
5. Bruin
6. Bush Boys
7. Cliff Climbers
8. Desert Home
9. Flag of Distress
10. Forest Exiles
11. Giraffe Hunters
12. Ocean Waifs
13. Odd People
14. Plant Hunters
15. Ran Away to Sea
16. Stories About Animals
17. Young Voyagers
18. Young Yagers