[Salesman's Sample]. [Publishing]

[Large Collection of American Salesman's Sample Books from the Late-19th and Early-20th Centuries]

[Various locations, but mostly New York and Chicago: 1871-1935]. Thirty-nine volumes, varying formats and irregular paginations. Light wear, mostly at edges and spine ends. Light toning and dust soiling throughout. Scattered, contemporary manuscript annotations. Very good. Item #6423

A significant collection of thirty-nine canvassing books, used by door-to-door salesmen for advertising and selling books. Beginning in the mid-19th century, publishers produced these books, also known as “salesman's samples” or “salesman's dummies,” that comprised slimmed down versions of the true publication, which offered options for binding styles and showed sample pages and illustrations. This group of canvassing samples represents books published between 1873 and 1935 on a wide variety of topics ranging from bibles and religious works to fiction, children’s literature, and biography. The preponderance date from the late 19th-century and the first decade of the 20th century. The final pages of most canvassing books contain order forms; in this collection, several have been filled in. Additionally, instructions to salespeople are laid into several volumes. Included here are samples for a compendium on Arctic exploration; biographies of American political and military luminaries such as Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and William Tecumseh Sherman; several literary anthologies; military histories; self-help books and religious writings; a cookbook; and much else. One of the earliest samples in the present group is a dummy for an enormous Bible (A.J. Holman and Co., circa 1870), which provides a variety of elaborate binding styles, illustration options, and the opportunity for any family to customize their tome. Another fascinating dummy in the later side of this collection is for Sinclair Lewis’ controversial novel Elmer Gantry (1927) about a charismatic, hard-drinking, and fast-talking traveling salesman who shifts his talents to selling religion in Prohibition-era America. It was a commercial success, becoming the best-selling work of fiction in America for 1927, according to Publishers Weekly. A substantial group of canvassing books that provide a unique view of book marketing, advertising, and popular culture in the 19th century. A complete list of collection contents is available on request.

Price: $6,000.00