F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?

Subject: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 01:11 PM

Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads was published in parts between 1882 and 1898 by Houghton Mifflin in an edition of 1000 numbered copies.
Has anyone catalogued who the original subscribers were, and the chain of ownership of each set through the current time ???
Thanks, Thomas.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 01:30 PM

I very much doubt it. Child himself died before it was complete and his successors were far too busy trying to reorder his papers. If such a thing exists it will be either in the Child Library or in the Houghton Mifflin records if they survive somewhere. It's the sort of thing Helen Sargent might have preserved and kept in the family. Quite a few would have gone to libraries.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 04:33 PM

Baring Gould started out purchasing the parts and then tried to cadge freebies, which was one of the motives for sending Child his ballad budgets. He would have had a full set one way or the other. His Scottish correspondents would have had comp copies, Walker, Macmath, and Furnivall in England no doubt as well. The Scottish Universities might still have their copies as well as American institutions, bound up together.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 06:19 PM

Would the 10 vol set have been bought in parts as they appeared or would they have been bought as a set after the last vol was published?

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 08:19 PM

I would think that given the long span of years taken to complete publication (the final part (X) was copyright Elizabeth Sedgwick Child, parts I-IX F J Child) they would have been subscribed in advance, but I do not have documantation for that. As long as copies were available, they would have accepted subscriptions - I doubt individual parts would have been sold, at least not until the publication was complete.
There must have been advertisements in some scholarly publications - the American Folklore Society was founded in 1888, the British Folk-Song Society 1898. Perhaps their journals have some information?
Wonder if anyone on the list has a set? What number ??
Set 471 was a discard from the Princeton Library - pages are brittle, flaking, and many title pages detached. Each part is bound individually, not all the same binding so I guess some were rebound. There is information in these indicating the set was a bequest to Princeton, but I do not have that information available now.

Cheers, Thomas.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 06:51 AM

I have the ten volume set . The first 2 volumes are signed by the man himself with penciled corrections in the margins. Volume 10 I got from the Bookseller in "Upstate New York" who sold the 9 volumes to the Bookseller who I bought them from in the U K I consider myself somewhat fortunate to be the current guardian of the set
It is interesting to compare the songs/poems with those in the 1855/56 edition that was his first attempt

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 01:11 PM

Old Nic
Are you suggesting these pencilled corrections are by the man himself?

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 02:24 PM

I am now confused. (Easily done). I have always assumed (read even) that the 10 parts were bought and posted off to subscribers as they were published, much like the publications of the Ballad Society, Roxburghe Ballads/Bagford Ballads etc. 16 years is a long time to wait for a set of books. Many of the subscribers would have died before they saw a copy.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 03:17 PM

According to Mary Ellen Brown's book, the Part I edition was sent to subscribers by the middle of December 1882. She has nothing to say about the subscribers themselves (afaik), but her bibliography lists the Houghton library at Harvard as holding the Houghton Mifflin Company correspondent and records 1832-1944 and the Houghton Mifflin company records guide. It's possible the list of subscribers is amongst these.

Mick

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 13 Jul 18 - 05:10 PM

Old Nick - what is the number (of 1000) of your set ??
Mick - thatks for info Houghton Library

Thomas.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 07:43 AM

Steve ,yes I am suggesting that he did the corrections as they seem to be in the same "Hand"
Thomas, I will look the number up tonight

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 11:02 AM

Nick,
I am intrigued by these pencil corrections. Are they annotations, corrections to typos, or something more significant? Do they amount to many annotations? Would Child scholars be interested in what they tell us?

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Gutcher
Date: 16 Jul 18 - 12:36 PM

O.N.K. 6.51am 13/7/18 mentions 1st. publication of F.J.Cs. English and Scottish Ballads as 1855/56.
Anyone have a list of further publication dates before final set published.
I ask as I have a set of eight, in good condition, published in 1861, no publishers name given, but has the name and address of a bookbinder in Argyle Street, Glasgow.
Could this be a pirated edition?.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 17 Jul 18 - 06:18 AM

I think that you will find that it is "English and Scottish Poets "That was published in 1855

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Gutcher
Date: 17 Jul 18 - 12:37 PM

Sorry--on checking through the full set of eight volumes I find that I had skipped two pages in the volume I consulted.
Here reads the title page I missed:---
                        
                        English and Scottish

                              BALLADS.

                              Edited by
                         FRANCIS JAMES CHILD.

                            Volume

                               LONDON
             Sampson Low, Son, & Co., 47, Ludgate Hill
                              MDCCCLXI.

In volume one there follows a six page preface:--                     

                     signed F.J.C. and dated May, 1860.


Each ballad has a preface of varying length.

The set is a quality product, having leather spines and corners, marbled boards and gold topped pages.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 06:58 AM

My set is numbered 253
It is dedicated to "Professor George Stephens "
I will get some photo's of the Dedication and the corrections and do a blue clicky when I can get some help as my M N D makes taking photo's a bit difficult

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 08:00 AM

The last post was mine

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 10:46 AM

O.N.K. Would you please be so kind as to give us an idea of the nature of the pencil corrections, or some examples?

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 08:00 AM

Steve Read my last post Nic

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 02:59 PM

Thanks. Sorry I misread it.

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST,OLDNICKILBY
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 07:07 AM

Refresh

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 07:18 AM

How do I add images as Blue Clicky's ? It is beating us. I have half a dozen pics of the corrections to Volume 1

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 07:28 AM

Click the link below the entry box labelled Make a link ("blue clicky"). You'll get a new page with 2 boxes at the top. Put the address where your photos are in the top box (Link URL: eg http://www.google.com) and put anything you want as a label in the second box (Link text (optional*) eg Google search). Press the button marked Create Link. Copy the 2nd line it show you (eg <a href="http://www.google.com">Google search</a>) into the post - that will be your link. You can test that it's ok by clicking the link after Test this link: on the generation page.

Mick

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 09:21 AM

Lets hope this has worked
Thanks for the help Mick

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 09:23 AM

Copy 253

Subject: RE: F J Child ESPB 1882-1898 - original subscribers?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 02 Aug 18 - 10:20 AM

That works!

Mick