Have a robinson crusoe published by M. A. Donohue but has no date. I see it was published in 1922 but this one has no pictures and is inscribed to someone in 1905 ???
Robinson Crusoe was 1st published April 25, 1719. But you are correct the Publishing Company started publishing this book in 1922. Very strange!
Books can be approximately dated by the address used by Donohue printed in most of their books. 1901-1906: 407-429 Dearborn Ave. 1907-1909 (or 1910): 407-425 Dearborn Ave. 1911 (or 1910)-1916: 701-727 Dearborn Ave. 1917-1922: 701-733 Dearborn Ave. 1923: 709-711 Dearborn Ave. Early Donohue & Co. book series, such as the Adelphi Library, are difficult to track down by name in contemporary sources. I suspect the series were not advertised much but instead sold in bulk for sales through department, drug and dime stores. An advertisement, below, from the Dry Goods Reporter, May 28, 1904, advertises Donohue & Co. paperbound novels, sold in bulk with an only minimal indication of the actual titles that would be shipped. The above is from... https://seriesofseries.owu.edu/adelphi-library/ ... as is the following ad ... It's listed as book #84. James.
The address on yours is 407-429 Dearborn Ave. According to Roaring20s info, that puts it 1901-1906. Consistent with the inscription. Is it that 1922 was when they started printing a date along with the Publisher info?
Donohue was what we call a "cheap reprinter" - they mostly published public domain - out of copyright - titles, classic literature, and reprints of other publishers' children's books, often of cheaper materials or with fewer illustrations. They did a lot of series with matching covers, one of which was the Adelphi Library, as Roaring20s shows, but another having that 'Dan'l Boone' cover art. Here's a copy of Cooper's The Spy in the same cover: https://tinyurl.com/toomany-spy Since the works were not under copyright, there was no need to include a date. The 1922 editions or other dated editions) of Crusoe probably had new illustrations that WERE under copyright, possibly inspired by the film of the story produced that year.
Wow really amazing most pages are showing that they were i guess not inked very well. Lots of light spots.
I just bought this exact copy with an encryption of 1907. Picked it up for $3 today. Giving it as a gift for Christmas.
