Book Salesman's Samples
The Society holds a strong collection of
salesman's samples or dummy books, which have also been called
"blads." These specimen books were used by the itinerant agents of
subscription publishers to entice customers
to agree to purchase a copy of a work in advance
of delivery. This form of marketing was common in America during
the years just before and after the Civil War. It was unlike the
phenomenon of the same name in the eighteenth century, when subscription
publishing was used to finance or at least to assure the
success of an edition prior to printing.
A typical specimen book of the nineteenth century consists of
sample sheets in a sample binding. Sometimes these sheets are in
a prepublication state and thus may have bibliographic interest.
A customer could choose among alternative styles of binding, and a
sample book usually includes the spines of available styles mounted
inside the covers. The sample book might also include a printed
prospectus describing the virtues of the work or edition with
recommendations from well-known persons. Most specimen books also
include blank forms on which the salesman entered the names,
addresses, sometimes occupations, and the number of copies
his subscribers agreed to purchase. Subscription forms can provide
demographic information on book ownership, if not on actual
readership.
The Society holds approximately 400 salesman's sample books
issued before 1900; about one-third of these were issued before
1877. The earliest was issued in 1836. Most of the early ones
date from the 1860s and 1870s. The collection includes dummies of
four first editions of works by Mark Twain. All salesman's samples
may be found listed in the General Catalog under author or title;
a partial checklist is also
available at the readers' services desk. Approximately one third of them
are cataloged online.
Closely related to the salesman's dummies are prospectuses,
pre-publication descriptions of books, newspapers and magazines, which
list the title of the item, the publishers, and the terms of publication.
Sometimes they are also subscription papers, but more often they are only
announcements of forthcoming publications. Many are single sheet items
and are thus found in the Broadsides collection.
Complementing this collection are collateral materials on the
subscription business, including several agents' manuals that give
explicit instructions on sales methods and biographies and
autobiographies of book agents. These materials can be found
listed in the General Card Catalog or in the online catalog under
"booksellers and book-
selling."
A typescript by Marcus A. McCorison, Publishers' Sample and
Canvassing Books Issued Prior to the Year 1877 (Worcester, Mass.,
1997)
annotates AAS holdings in
Keith Arbour's Canvassing Books, Sample Books, and Subscription
Publishers' Ephemera 1833-1951 in the Collection of Michael Zinman
(Ardsley, N.Y., 1996).
- Richard C. Fyffe, former Cataloger; revised by S.J. Wolfe, Senior
Cataloger
|
Salesman's sample book of Lights and Shadows of New York Life
(Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1872).
Broadside of the prospectus, tipped into the sample book.
Sample of additional binding option, in extra fine morocco cloth. Agents
receipts showing proof of purchase.
|
For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
|
|
