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Lot 376
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Volume of 26 Issues 1835 Select Circulating Library Literary Magazine from Philadelphia
Volume of 26 Issues 1835 Select Circulating Library Literary Magazine from Philadelphia
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Description:

19th Century Literature
Philadelphia, PA, ca. January - June 1835
Volume of 26 Issues 1835 Select Circulating Library Literary Magazine from Philadelphia
Magazine/Comic
The Select Circulating Library. Containing the Best Popular Literature, Including Memoirs, Biography, Novels, Tales, Travels, Voyages, &c. Part 1 – January – June 1835. Philadelphia: Adam Waldie, 1835. 438 pp., 9.25" x 11.5". Spine missing; front and back covers detached; toning and foxing throughout.

In 1832, Scottish-born printer Adam Waldie of Philadelphia began The Select Circulating Library as a weekly publication of sixteen pages that reproduced novels, travel accounts, biographies, and other works of popular literature in a serial format. Librarian and editor John Jay Smith served as editor and selected the materials for inclusion. Because it was in the form of a newspaper, it could be shipped through the mail more cheaply than books. Subscriptions cost $5 per year for fifty-two issues. The Select Circulating Library ultimately filled seventeen volumes, published between 1832 and 1842.

This volume contains 26 issues and a supplement, issued from January 1 through June 23, 1835. Frances J. [Devereax?] received the volume from her father.

Among the contents are "The Fashionable Wife and Unfashionable Husband" by Amelia Opie from her Simple Tales (1806) (61-73); "Traditions of the American War of Independence – No. 2," from The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine (December 1834) (73-77); [Richard H. Barham], "My Cousin Nicholas; or, the Bullwinkles of Underdown Hall," from Blackwood's Magazine (1834-1835) (193-231); James S. Memes, "Life of William Cowper, Esq., of the Inner Temple," the introductory volume of a complete edition of Cowper's works (239-278); James Edward Alexander, "Sketches of Portugal, during the Civil War of 1834" (337-358); Lieut. William Bowers, "Naval Adventures, during Thirty-five Years' Service" (1833) (364-407); and Sir John Ross, "Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a Northwest Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions, during the years 1829, 30, 31, 32, 33" (1835) (407-432).

Historical Background
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Philadelphia was the "intellectual center of the nation," according to Henry Adams, looking back from the end of the century, but by the end of the War of 1812, Philadelphia had lost that preeminence to Boston and New York but remained a center of cultural life. Between 1817 and 1833, no fewer than twenty-seven new magazines began in the city. Among them were some long-lived titles such as American Quarterly Review and Godey's Lady's Book and many with much shorter lifespans.

According to John Jay Smith, he first proposed to Adam Waldie, "an agreeable and handsome practical printer" whose business was "very dull" the idea of circulating "books by mail." Smith served as the editor and compiler, and Waldie printed 1,500 copies of the first volume, but they quickly sold out. Waldie soon increased the printing to 6,000 copies per issue. According to Smith, "It seemed incredible to the public that we could so cheaply sell books so well selected. A London guinea novel, or travels, we reprinted and circulated in quarto for twenty or thirty cents! I was thus suddenly transformed into the popular editor of the day, and Waldie, whose name alone appeared, was popular everywhere."

Smith continued as editor, "doing hard duty day and night, reading constantly to get the best and newest books out before the booksellers. We imported for a time very largely from London, but found the Philadelphia Library the best and much the cheapest source, always compensating it with six copies of the publication and a new copy of the work." He later reflected that "Permeating, as it were, through society, Waldie's books, so published as to reach every post-office in the nation at a surprisingly cheap rate, vivified and brought to the surface, as William Chambers has said, a new order of readers, and, besides, set a fashion for seeking recreation in books and periodicals which was favorable to any cheapening of these engines of instruction and entertainment. Waldie's Library, it is safe to say, paved the road for the army of book-readers which followed so rapidly on its publication."

Adam Waldie (1793-1842) was born in Scotland. He married Mary Ann Scott (1800-1846), also from Scotland, in Philadelphia in 1818, and they had at least five children. By 1822, he had established himself as a printer in Montrose in northern Pennsylvania. In 1828, he became a naturalized citizen and founded the printing firm of Adam Waldie & Co. in Philadelphia. In 1832, he began publishing The Select Circulating Library, which continued until his death ten years later.

John Jay Smith (1798-1881) was born into a prominent Quaker family in New Jersey, attended a Quaker boarding school, and was apprenticed to a druggist in Philadelphia. He had an early love of reading and studied a wide array of subjects from science and philosophy to music and Hebrew. In 1821, he married Rachel Collins Pearsall, the daughter of a New York merchant. After a failed venture in publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper, Smith became an editor for several periodicals, including Waldie's Select Circulating Library. From 1829 to 1851, he served as librarian of the Library Company of Philadelphia. He also founded both Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill Cemeteries, which he landscaped. He was the founder of a life insurance company, served as treasurer of the Philadelphia Museum, and was an early member of the Academy of Natural Sciences. He also collected autographs and manuscripts relating to the history of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 9.25" x 11.5"
  • Medium: Magazine/Comic

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